Gisele Pelicot: Signs doctors missed to uncover vile abuse of serial rape victim
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Doctors missed vital clues rape victim Gisele Pelicot was a victim of her husband, despite her health deteriorating to the point she thought she was dying. Dominique Pelicot, who was today jailed for 20 years, drugged his wife for years so he could rape her. He then invited 71 other men to come to their home in Mazan in the south east of France, to sexually assault her while she lay unconscious.
The rapes and sexual assaults saw Ms Pelicot stricken with gynaecological problems, and the drugging began to her effect her waking life too. She lost weight, clumps of hair fell out and she was riddled with anxiety as the years of attacks went on. Gisèle came close to having suspicions. She once noticed a beer handed to her by her husband had a green tinge to it, but she quickly poured it down the sink. Another time she noticed a bleach stain, she couldn't recall making on a new pair of trousers.
She remembered joking to her husband: "You're not drugging me by any chance, are you?" He broke down in tears, with Gisele not realising how close to the truth she had come. He simply replied: "How can you accuse me of such a thing?". Gisele had spoken out to say at the time she felt lucky to have her husband by her side as she navigated her health issues. She underwent several neurological tests to determine if she was suffering from Alzheimer's or a brain tumour, as she feared, but the results didn't explain the increasing tiredness and the blackouts.
Gisele saw several doctors during the 10 years in which she was being raped while sedated, yet none flagged that she may have been the victim of coercive control which Dr Andreea Gruev-Vintila told Sky News as the court case concluded, was a "systemic failure".
