Shocking rape trial highlights the systematic struggles French sexual
abuse victims face
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[September 21, 2024]
By DIANE JEANTET
AVIGNON, France (AP) — The trial of dozens of men accused of raping an
unconscious woman whose husband repeatedly drugged her over the course
of nearly a decade has highlighted the difficulties that sexual violence
victims can face in France.
Dominique Pelicot, 71, and his 50 co-defendants face up to 20 years in
prison if they're convicted at a trial that has shocked the world and
riveted the French public.
Pelicot tearfully acknowledged in court that he's guilty of the
allegations against him, and he said all of his co-defendants understood
exactly what they were doing when he invited them to his home in
Provence between 2011 and 2020 to have sex with his unconscious and
unwitting wife, who divorced him after learning what he had done to her.
Despite evidence including meticulously archived photos and videos that
Pelicot shot of the alleged rapes, some of the defendants’ lawyers have
scrutinized Gisèle Pelicot’s private life and motives, even questioning
whether she was truly unconscious during some of the encounters.
Although they must defend their clients to the best of their abilities,
the lawyers' tactics have outraged advocates for the sexually abused,
who say the attorneys show that victim-blaming is alive and well in
France.
“This trial is the trial of our society,” 27-year-old Nathan Paris, who
works in a youth shelter, said this week outside the Avignon courthouse.
Paris, a victim of sexual violence himself, has made the trip from
Marseille on several occasions since the trial began.
“The French population has evolved … and I feel like justice has not
evolved over that time,” he said, vowing to keep coming back until the
trial ends.
The co-defendants range in age from their 20s to their 70s and represent
a cross-section of French men: There is a firefighter, a journalist, a
nurse, a prison guard and a construction worker. Some are retired, some
are unemployed and many have families of their own. One knew he had HIV
when he raped Gisèle Pelicot on six occasions and chose not to wear a
condom, according to police. She didn't contract HIV, though she was
found to have other sexually transmitted diseases, a medical expert
testified.
Magali Lafourcade, a judge and general secretary of the National
Consultative Commission of Human Rights who is not involved in the
trial, said the fight against sexual violence in France has slightly
improved since the start of the #MeToo movement, which has brought down
some of France’s most well-known actors and film directors, among other
notables. Women have always talked, but their voices are now being heard
more, she said.
“For a very long time, we saw the rape and killing of women by men as
something that pertained to the private sphere — we thought we should
not interfere with people’s private lives,” Lafourcade said.
“There has been a clear change, or revolution even, with this perception
since #MeToo,” she added.
Civic groups have lobbied hard in recent years so that judges,
politicians and the media understand that sexual violence is not just a
private affair, but also a societal, political and financial one,
Lafourcade said.
French President Emmanuel Macron has promised to prioritize gender
equality and combat violence against women. But France’s public policies
are still lagging, and more resources and effort need to be put toward
going after sexual offenders, experts told The Associated Press.
Lawyers and analysts agree that in many ways, the Pelicot trial is a
slam dunk thanks to its abundance of highly incriminating evidence and
its lead defendant's admission of guilt.
Gisèle Pelicot also defies the widespread stereotype among French
society that women who are raped might have provoked their assailants by
seeking to attract the male gaze or being imprudent. She is a
grandmother in her 70s who was drugged and unconscious whenever she was
assaulted, according to police.
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Gisele Pelicot speaks to media as she leaves the Avignon court
house, southern France, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis
Joly, File)
“Most victims don’t have that,” said Celine Piques, a spokesperson
of the feminist group Osez le Féminisme!, or Dare Feminism!,
stressing that 90% of women who say they were raped don't pursue
charges because they don't think they'll stand a chance. “In most
cases, the victims’ words are called into question and the shame
falls on them rather than on the man who committed the rape.”
Piques said she has been particularly shocked by the questions about
Gisèle Pelicot’s sex life, including “whether she was into swinging
or threesomes, when this woman was drugged and unconscious.”
Gisèle Pelicot has shown remarkable calm and stoicism during the
trial, even throughout the most gruesome and explicit descriptions
of the abuse she suffered. But she grew exasperated on Wednesday
when defense lawyers questioned her about graphic images taken of
her that were shown in court for the first time. She had agreed to
their display because she said she hoped they would serve as
“undeniable evidence.”
“I understand why victims of rape don’t press charges,” Pelicot told
the five judges after a lawyer asked if she wasn't hiding any
unusual sexual “tendencies.”
“I’m not even going to answer this question, which I find
insulting,” she responded, her voice breaking.
She told the court that the first two weeks of the trial had been
harrowing, saying, “Since I’ve arrived in this courtroom, I’ve felt
humiliated. I am treated like an alcoholic, an accomplice. ... I
have heard it all.”
Pelicot has become a symbol of the fight against sexual violence in
France, and she's seen as a hero to many victims for waiving her
anonymity, letting the trial be public and appearing openly before
the media. She has attended every day of the trial, where she has
sat in a room full of men accused of raping her.
But despite the nauseating details that have emerged during the
trial, it hasn’t stopped some from minimizing the abuse, with the
mayor of the small community where the Pelicots lived, Mazan,
apologizing Thursday for suggesting in a BBC interview that things
could have been worse because “no children were involved” and
“nobody died.”
Such dismissiveness is pervasive in France's justice system,
Lafourcade said.
“We have a real problem with the judiciary's treatment of sexual
infractions, which is very painful for the victims and has a
chilling effect,” she said. “It discourages people from pressing
charges.”
Given how few cases are reported and how seldom the ones that are
end in convictions, only a tiny fraction of assailants actually go
to prison, Lafourcade said.
“And to reduce a crime, it is not the severity of the sentence that
counts," she added. "It is the fact of being certain of being
caught.”
Pelicot's supporters believe she is making a difference by
courageously facing the men accused of raping her and that broader
change is on the horizon.
“Before, we never would have questioned a lawyer and his line of
defense,” said Paris, the youth shelter worker. “But today society
is changing, people monitor what is happening and take into
consideration the suffering of others.”
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