Gisele Pelicot held trial in public to end rape culture, says lawyer

Gisele Pelicot's decision to waive her anonymity and hold a public trial after her husband drugged her and invited dozens of men to rape her over nearly a decade was made in the hope of ending rape culture, her lawyers said yesterday.

- Angelique Chrisafis

Summing up in court in Avignon, southern France, after more than two months of hearings, Stephane Babonneau, one of Gisele Pelicot's lawyers, said: "We don,t believe rape is an inevitability. This is a country of progress Rape is not part of the future of the society that we want."

Antoine Camus, another of her lawyers, said Gisele Pelicot and her children hoped that making the trial public would lead to "a change of mentality and a better future that ends this violence from another age".

A total of 51 men are on trial over the rape of Gisele Pelicot, whose then husband, Dominique Pelicot, crushed sleeping tablets and anti-anxiety medication into her food and drink, inviting dozens of men to rape her while she was unconscious over a nine-year period from 2011 to 2020 in the village of Mazan in Provence. Dominique Pelicot has admitted the charges, telling the court: "I am a rapist."