French woman testifies against husband accused of inviting strangers to rape her

A woman who was allegedly drugged by her now ex-husband so that she could be raped while unconscious by other men testified that her world collapsed when police uncovered the years of alleged abuse.

Speaking for the first time since the trial began on Sept 2 , 71-year-old Gisele Pelicot shared her emotions in nearly 90 minutes of testimony, detailing her mysterious health issues and a fateful meeting with police.

"The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot's computer," Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband, one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial.

For years, she mentioned, she had experienced unusual memory lapses and other health issues, leading her to suspect she might have had Alzheimer's.

In November 2020, she said in court that her world shattered when investigators showed her images of a decade of abuse filmed by her husband.

Police began to investigate the defendant, Dominique Pelicot, in September 2020 when he was caught by a security guard secretly filming under the skirts of three women in a shopping centre.

The assaults took place between July 2011 and October 2020, mainly in the couple's home in Mazan, a village of 6,000 people in the southern region of Provence.

Dominique admitted to investigators that he gave his wife powerful tranquilisers, especially Temesta, an anxiety-reducing drug.

Dominique Pélicot, now 71, and 50 other men are standing trial on charges of rape and face up to 20 years in prison.

In sexual crimes, the identities of victims are generally not revealed.

Gisèle Pélicot’s lawyer, Stéphane Babonneau, said she accepted that her name would be published in the same way that she insisted that the trial be held in public.