On Thursday, December 19, Gisèle Pelicot stood in court to witness her husband of 50 years and the men he recruited to rape her be sentenced to a combined total of more than 400 years in prison for their crimes against her unconscious body. Over a 10 year period Dominique Pelicot repeatedly drugged his unsuspecting wife. When she was sedated to the point of near coma, he would invite men over who he’d met on a forum called “Without her knowing” and allow them to rape his wife.
She had no idea at all. It only came to light after he was caught at a shopping mall trying to take pictures up the skirts of women. When he was arrested the police searched his devices and found hundreds of videos showing Gisele Pelicot being raped and assaulted. The police also found images of his naked and drugged daughter and daughters- in law.
From viewing the videos the police established that around 92 men had engaged in this depravity - most of them living within a few kilometers of each other in a small village of 6000 people in France. Only 50 of them have been caught and prosecuted. Of the 95 men who came to the house only three walked in and saw the state of Gisèle and declined to rape her, not one of those three men decided to do anything to protect her, not one decided to report what was happening. The men who have been convicted are all normal men. They are married men, young men, old men, fathers, an ex police officer, a firefighter, a journalist, a nurse.
