Gisèle Pelicot reveals why she wants to see ex-husband face-to-face in prison
Warning: This article contains discussion of sexual assault and rape which some readers may find distressing.
Gisèle Pelicot's bravery in relinquishing her anonymity so that she could unmask her ex-husband as a rapist stunned the world, as did the shocking revelations about how he had drugged his wife for years and let dozens of men assault her.
But Pelicot's inspiring fortitude has not waned in the 14 months since her ex-husband, Dominique, and 50 other men were found guilty of her rape and sentenced to prison. Now with her former partner serving 20 years behind bars for drugging and abusing her over a nine-year period, she wants answers.
The 73-year-old has said that now she wants to look her abuser 'straight in the eye' and demand 'answers' about the litany of assaults he and dozens of others committed against her while she was unconscious between 2011 and 2020, when his crimes were discovered.
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With the full extent of her ex-husband's crimes still being examined by investigators in France, Pelicot told the New York Times that she wants Dominique to explain his suspected role in the 1991 rape and murder of an estate agent, as well as why he had inappropriate photos of his daughter on his computer.
Despite the massive scope of the investigation into Dominique's nine-year campaign of marital sexual abuse in the French town of Mazan and the chilling trove of images evidencing his crimes found on his computer, there are still thought to be a further 20 men who abused Pelicot who remain at large.
Making life even more difficult for the family in the wake of his conviction, two of the images found in Dominique's possession appeared to show their daughter, Caroline, unconscious in her underwear. But this has caused a rift as the Pelicots come to terms with his years of violation.
Caroline accused her mother of not initially believing her, which caused the 73-year-old to tell the publication that her ex-husband's trial had not been a catalyst to draw the family together, but 'an explosion that blows everything away'.
Even with this difficulty and confusion within the family, Pelicot shared that she is trying to rebuild their relationship after the sickening revelations tore it apart and is now speaking to Caroline on a daily basis. But she still has questions for Dominique.
She told the Times that not knowing the context of the twisted pictures of Caroline had become an 'inescapable hell'.
Pelicot added: “There are those two photos of her asleep that open up a lot of questions. But I don’t have any answers, and Monsieur Pelicot didn’t give her any answers either.”
Which is why, despite his horrific crimes, Pelicot still wants to look him in the eye and ask him what he did.
She said: “I hope that when we’re face to face, he’ll be able to tell me the truth, both about his daughter and about everything else he’s now accused of.
“Maybe he’ll have some remorse. I’m still holding on to that hope. Maybe I’m naive, maybe I won’t get an answer.”
Pelicot also shared more details of the day she had discovered her husband had perpetrated a nine-year campaign of drugging and rape against her, after he had been arrested for taking pictures up someone's skirt.
This led to police searching his devices and finding scores of horrific abuse images, including of her. She said she saw an officer's 'face start to change' as he showed her a stack of images as part of the investigation, but she couldn't believe it was her.
She said: “And of course I didn’t recognize myself, because I was with a man I didn’t know, who was raping me. I said: ‘I don’t know this man’…
“He shows me a second photo, which is pretty much the same, and he says: ‘That’s you there.’ I say no, and he says: ‘This is your room, Madame Pelicot, these are your bedside lamps. We searched your home, these are your belongings.’”
At first, Pelicot just could not comprehend what the police were telling her, that she had been raped over 200 times while she was unconscious. And Dominique had even recorded videos of his despicable crimes.
She shared the horror of what investigators showed her, saying of the videos: “I’m a rag doll. It’s as if I’ve come out of surgery, because I’m completely anaesthetized.
"These men, when you see what they’re doing to me – how is it possible that my body couldn’t feel anything? … Fortunately for me, I have no memories, because I think I would have killed myself afterward.”
Pelicot is set to tell her story in her upcoming memoir, A Hymn To Life, which will be released in the US on February 17.
If you've been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can contact The National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800.656.HOPE (4673), available 24/7. Or you can chat online via online.rainn.org.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in a mental health crisis, help is available through Mental Health America. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. You can also reach the Crisis Text Line by texting MHA to 741741.
If you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call National Suicide Prevention Helpline on 1-800-273-TALK (8255). The Helpline is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Topics: Gisele Pelicot, True crime, France
William Morgan