From Victim to Vanguard: The Inspiring Journey of Gisele Pelicot

It is a transgression so terrifying and reprehensible that it eludes description—so much so that outside the courtroom, onlookers express their support through applause.

Warning: This article includes accounts of sexual abuse

Since September, crowds have gathered along the path in Avignon, applauding as Gisele Pelicot passes by. This silent gesture serves as a powerful endorsement for the 72-year-old woman at the heart of a mass sexual assault trial that has reverberated throughout France.

This action conveys the sentiment that she, not the perpetrators, possesses the strength. It resonates deeply with Gisele’s powerful assertion that “shame must be reassigned.”

For four months, she has endured the proceedings concerning her former husband, Dominique Pelicot, who has confessed to drugging and sexually assaulting her for nearly a decade while also inviting other men to participate.

Fifty men faced allegations of sexual assault and rape, the majority of whom refuted the charges.

Stay updated: Pelicot trial sentencing – live

Upon entering the courtroom now, Gisele holds her head high, her gaze forward. Earlier in the proceedings, she often concealed her eyes behind sunglasses.

Her legal representatives suggest that removing the glasses signifies more than just a seasonal change; it represents the moment when she ceased to feel the need to guard herself and hide her sight.

By relinquishing her right to anonymity so that the trial could proceed publicly, Gisele’s visage has transformed into one of the most recognized images of the year, splattered across walls, showcased on banners at rallies, and featured on the cover of Vogue’s German edition.

This marks a significant departure from the life that the mother-of-three was leading merely four years prior.

A monster in the home

In early 2020, Gisele Pelicot resided with her then-husband Dominique in the picturesque Provençal village of Mazan, their light yellow bungalow tucked away in a tranquil cul-de-sac.

This was the setting in which the couple enjoyed their retirement after relocating from Paris in 2013. Gisele remembers this phase as joyful. Her friends and family appreciated Dominique, and they shared seven grandchildren.

Having met when she was just 19, Dominique professed it was “love at first sight.” Gisele perceived him as “the ideal husband.”

However, on 12 September 2020, her life began to collapse.

A security guard at a shopping center witnessed Dominique Pelicot attempting to film under the skirts of women using a phone discreetly concealed in a bag.

He had previously been arrested for a comparable upskirting incident near Paris in 2010. At that time, he was fined €100 and kept it under wraps.

On this occasion, law enforcement confiscated Dominique’s phones, computer, and storage devices, revealing a meticulously curated collection of 20,000 images and videos, many depicting various men engaging in sexual acts with a woman who appeared to be unconscious.

The woman in these images was his wife, Gisele. Officers questioned whether this was consensual or if they had stumbled upon evidence of years of maltreatment. Two months later, they would substantiate their case.

Ultimately, one of France’s most heinous sexual offenders was apprehended by happenstance.

For Gisele, the truths unveiled by the investigation would disclose that her marriage was a facade, and her once happy home was concealing tragedies.

Her ideal husband was, in reality, a deceitful monster who had violated and betrayed her in the most unimaginable manners.

‘A scene of horror’

When Gisele was summoned to speak with the police in November 2020, she believed it pertained to the upskirting allegations of which she was aware.

As her husband departed to face questioning, she remained unaware that this would be the final moment she would see him as a free individual.

After verifying her identity as Dominique Pelicot’s wife—describing him as a “super guy”—the detectives informed her that they had discovered thousands of photographs and videos. They presented her with a picture. Then another, and then a third.

“I implored him to stop. It was excruciating. I was motionless in my bed, and a man was assaulting me. My entire world shattered,” Gisele later recounted to the court.

She characterized the photographs as “a scene of horror.”

“`html

For nearly ten years, Dominique orchestrated encounters with numerous men at their residence, engaging in sexual acts with his incapacitated wife while filming these events, preserving the recordings to satisfy his own desires.

“I was sacrificed on the altar of depravity,” she expressed. “They treated me like a plaything, a piece of refuse.”

Dominique admitted guilt to charges of drugging and assaulting Gisele, and for inviting about 70 men to engage in relations with his unconscious spouse. Of these, fifty were apprehended and charged.

At the commencement of the proceedings in September, Dominique stated: “Today, I recognize that I am a rapist, similar to those present in this courtroom. They were all aware of her state prior to their arrival; they knew everything, and they cannot claim otherwise.”

He encountered most of the men via a French swingers website under an alias “Fetish45”. The arrangement was meticulous and disturbing. Within a chat room titled “Without her knowledge”, he enlisted additional participants.

Dominique required that the men refrain from smoking and wearing fragrances, directing them to park away from the house. The defense maintained that Dominique had misled his accomplices into believing they were participating in a consensual couple’s fantasy.

In many instances, the men did not use protection. Medical specialist Anne Martinat informed the court that Gisele was “incredibly fortunate not to have contracted HIV, syphilis, or hepatitis”, but acknowledged she did acquire four distinct sexually transmitted infections.

Gisele recounted to the jury: “I feel deceived and violated. I have been betrayed by this man whom I believed I would share my life with.”

Discussing the drugging incidents, she recounted how Dominique often volunteered to prepare meals while she cared for their young grandchildren.

She recalled one night, after enjoying a dinner that Dominique had prepared, going to bed early, only to have him present her with ice cream: “It was my favorite, raspberry and mango sorbet. I thought ‘Wow,’ I am so fortunate to have a husband who takes care of me in this way.”

The court learned that Dominique sedated Gisele by hiding medication in her food and drinks.

“The meals, followed by the ice cream – then I would awaken in the morning in my pajamas, often fatigued yet attributing it to all the walking I had done the previous day.”

For years, Gisele was subjected to repeated druggings and was raped as many as 100 times, entirely unaware of the violations being inflicted upon her body.

Laure Chabaud, the prosecuting attorney, asserted that Dominique’s physician had prescribed him Temesta, an anti-anxiety medication.

He began his experimentation with drugging and assaulting Gisele while they were still residing in Paris in 2011. Gradually, he perfected his method, acquiring more than 700 pills from various pharmacies.

For the subsequent two years, he continued to assault his sedated wife while documenting the horrors. Upon relocating to Mazan, he escalated his actions, inviting others to participate.

They walk amongst us

The distressing revelations have sparked inquiries: how could an individual engage in such acts, and how did no one perceive the reality?

We desire monsters to be readily identifiable, yet Gisele revealed to the court: “The profile of a rapist can appear entirely normal; he could be a friend or a family man.”

Dominique’s defense attorney, Beatrice Zavarr, posited that there were “two Dominiques” – a devoted family man and a man marked by a distinct “perversion”.

“Individuals are not born perverted; they evolve into that,” she reiterated her client’s claims, proposing that a traumatic upbringing had fractured his psyche and resulted in a dual personality.

Dominique’s impeccable image as a family man enabled him to avoid suspicion.

When Gisele experienced bouts of memory loss and blackouts attributed to the drugs and feared the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, he remained at her side. When she faced gynecological issues emanating from the sexual assaults he orchestrated, he comforted her at the physician’s office.

However, in private…
“`- in a document entitled “abuse” – he was gathering recordings of violence. In certain instances, his voice could be heard instructing the men on what actions to take regarding his unresponsive wife.

The court further heard he trained a so-called “follower” named Jean Pierre M in the methods to drug and assault his own spouse.

Kerry Daynes, an esteemed forensic psychologist, informed Sky News that the disparity between Dominique’s public image and his twisted actions is not unexpected.

“Sexual offenders excel at compartmentalising their lives,” she remarked, deeming the notion of him possessing a dual personality “utterly absurd”.

“It suggests there is an underlying mental health issue. There isn’t. He is, quite simply, a sexual pervert who harbors contempt for women and seeks to exploit and humiliate them.”

Dominique’s offenses did not begin with Gisele. While testifying, he mentioned that at the age of 14 he had been coerced into participating in a sexual assault, which he stated resulted in “a fracture” within him.

“The fantasy I crudely revived resembles that,” he commented.

His DNA was linked to blood found at the site of an attempted sexual assault on a woman in Paris in 1999. Following the unveiling of the evidence against him, he conceded his presence at the location.

Additionally, he has been charged with the sexual assault and murder of a 23-year-old woman in Paris in 1991, a claim he has refuted.

The trial revealed he also clandestinely recorded his daughters-in-law, one of whom was expecting, and circulated nude images of them online.

Moreover, he captured semi-nude photographs of his adult daughter, Caroline, while she was asleep. She now lives in fear that he drugged and assaulted her, despite his repeated denials in court.

Kerry Daynes explained that Dominique would have participated in “psychological gymnastics” to rationalize his actions, “thinking that if I’m offending against Gisele, then I am not harming other women or, at the very least, I am keeping it within the family”.

She added: “This is the modus operandi of sex offenders. They are not monsters lurking in shadows. They are the men we coexist with.”

Reflecting on the ramifications of Dominique’s traumatic upbringing, Daynes noted “these circumstances clearly impacted him” – yet “it is erroneous to assert a simplistic cause and effect relationship”.

“If that were true, every individual who has suffered childhood sexual abuse and trauma would be perpetrating harm on others, which simply isn’t the case.”

As for the 50 other individuals convicted following the trial, they share no clear commonalities, aside from primarily residing within a 30-mile radius of the Pelicots’ residence.

Their ages span from their late twenties to mid-seventies. Some hail from dysfunctional families, faced substance abuse issues, or endured childhood abuse. A number now have families of their own. Most are gainfully employed – including a journalist, truck drivers, military personnel, nurses, firefighters, and a DJ.

They have been labeled “Monsieur Tout-Le-Monde,” or Mr. Everyman. They represent the fathers, husbands, partners, and siblings among us.

The majority contested the allegations, claiming they were manipulated; that they thought consent was present; that they did not “intend” to commit rape or believed their actions did not constitute rape.

Nevertheless, the involvement of so many men without a clear link has raised concerns about whether these offenses stem from a deeper malaise within French society.

A rallying plea

By shedding her anonymity, Gisele has compelled France to confront its culture of sexual violence. She remarked in court: “I wanted all victims of sexual assault to feel empowered to say: ‘If Mrs. Pelicot can do it, so can we’… Because when you experience rape, feelings of shame can overwhelm you, but the shame is not ours to bear, it belongs to them.”

Some defense attorneys have attempted to undermine her resolve, questioning Gisele on whether an adulterous affair motivated Dominique’s quest for revenge – a notion both parties have discredited.

On another occasion, Guillaume de Palma, representing several defendants, suggested “there is rape, and then there’s rape”, insinuating that a man unaware of his actions could not be held accountable for the offense.

“When you observe a woman deeply asleep in her own bed, isn’t there a moment of reflection, ‘Isn’t there something amiss here?'” Gisele retorted vehemently from the stand.

“Rape is rape,” she asserted.

This simple declaration has transformed into a rallying cry for women throughout France, with tens of thousands participating in protests against sexual violence.

Among the demonstrators in Paris was Miranda, who expressed that France is “sexist and misogynistic… yet we are beginning to speak out”.

Many protesters are advocating for the inclusion of consent to be incorporated into the French legal definition of rape, which currently specifies “sexual penetration, executed against another individual by violence, coercion, threat, or surprise”.

Gisele stated: “I am hearing from numerous women and men who tell me, ‘You are incredibly brave.’ I respond that it is not bravery, but sheer will and determination to transform society. This is not exclusively my fight, but that of all victims of sexual assault.”