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PUNTA CANA. “My wife did not deserve the ordeal she suffered for almost ten years,” said Dominique Pelicot, 71, accused of drugging his ex-wife Gisele Pelicot, after Pelicot admitted in court that he was “a rapist.”
“I am a rapist, just like everyone in this room. They all knew it, they can’t say otherwise,” Pelicot said, referring to the 50 co-defendants in the case. Pelicot is accused of giving his ex-wife drugs between 2011 and 2020 to render her unconscious and subject her to rape by unknown assailants.
Pelicot's testimony is crucial for the other 50 defendants, who face sentences of up to 20 years in prison. Some of the defendants claim that they did not know that Pelicot was drugging his wife and thought that they were a libertine couple, an assertion that the victim denied in her first statement before the court.
Gisèle Pelicot, the main victim, said she “did not deserve this” and Pelicot apologized, although she acknowledged that “this is not acceptable.” Pelicot’s presence in court generated great expectation, especially after she was absent from the proceedings for more than a week due to health problems.
The trial has reignited the debate in France about consent and the use of drugs to commit sexual assault, a practice known as chemical submission. The hearing has become a symbol of this issue, with protesters chanting “we are all Gisèle” outside the court.