Dominique Pelicot trial: What are the accusations in French trial that has shocked the world

It is the French trial that has shocked the world, as horrifying details emerge of accusations that a man drugged his wife and invited dozens of others to rape her over nearly a decade.

Today, the trial witnessed its most important moment when the accused, Dominique Pelicot, told the court: “I am a rapist”.

What are the accusations?

Pelicot has previously confessed to investigators that he drugged his wife, Gisele, and invited around 50 other men to rape her over decades.

Many of the other men, aged 26 to 74, deny having raped her, saying they were manipulated by her then-husband or claiming they believed she was consenting.

Police initially uncovered the alleged crimes after finding footage while searching for evidence related to Pelicot videoing up women’s skirts in a supermarket. The discovered some 20,000 photos and videos of the attacks, taken over years.

What did Pelicot say in court today?

“Today I maintain that, along with the other men here, I am a rapist,″ he said.

“They knew everything. They can’t say otherwise.”

AFP via Getty Images

After days of uncertainty due to his medical state, Pelicot appeared in court on Tuesday and told judges that he acknowledged all of the charges against him.

Seated in a wheelchair, he spoke to the court for an hour, from his early life to years of abuse against his now ex-wife.

Expressing remorse, his voice trembling and at times barely audible, he sought to explain events that he said scarred his childhood and planted the seed of vice in him.

“One is not born a pervert, one becomes a pervert,” Pelicot told judges, after recounting, sometimes in tears, being raped by a male nurse in a hospital when he was nine years old and then being forced to take part in a gang rape at age 14.

Pelicot also spoke of the trauma endured when his parents took in a young girl in the family, and witnessed his father’s inappropriate behaviour toward her.

“My father used to do the same thing with the little girl,” he said. “After my father’s death, my brother said that men used to come to our house.”

At 14, he said, he asked his mother if he could leave the house, but “she didn’t let me”.

“I don’t really want to talk about this, I am just ashamed of my father. In the end, I didn’t do any better,” he said.

Why has Gisele Pelicot been named?

Ms Pelicot has decided to waive her anonymity as a rape victim, becoming a symbol of the fight against sexual violence in France.

The court proceedings, which runs until December, are open to the public at the request of Ms Pelicot.

Married to Pelicot for 50 years, the couple had three children. When they retired, they left the Paris region to move into a house in Mazan, a small town in Provence, in southern France.

When police officers called her in for questioning in late 2020, she initially told them her husband was “a great guy”, according to legal documents.

She later left her husband and they are now divorced.

She is expected to speak in court later today after her ex-husband’s testimony.

What has the public reaction been to the trial?

Protests have erupted in France in reaction to the case, with protests in support of Ms Pelicot spreading to 30 cities last weekend.

In Paris, around 3,500 people chanted: “We are all Gisele,” and, “Rapist we see you, victim we believe you.”

Her lawyer, Stephane Babboneau, has said Pelicot was choosing to go public to put over the message: “shame must change sides”.