The remarkable courage of Gisèle Pelicot

Justice was served on Dominique Pelicot today when an Avignon court found him guilty of raping his ex-wife, Gisèle, over a ten year period, and enlisting more than 50 other men to molest her as she slept.

From 2011 to 2020, the 72-year-old Pelicot drugged his wife of 38 years and invited men he had met online to rape Gisèle. She had no idea of the abuse that was being inflicted on her, nor why she was suffering from memory loss and blackouts. His depravity came to an end in 2020 when he was arrested for filming under a woman’s skirt in a supermarket. When police examined his phones and laptop, they discovered more than 20,000 videos and photos of his wife being raped by him and others. It is believed that as many as 30 more men raped Gisele but have not been identified.

Pelicot was sentenced to twenty years in prison at the end of a trial that began in September and came to grip not just France but the wider world.