Pelicot trial Defendants' ex-partners fear they too were abused

Giving evidence in Avignon's criminal court, a softly spoken woman in her 30s pondered whether the medication she took as part of managing her multiple sclerosis may have allowed her ex-partner, Cedric G, to sexually abuse her without her knowledge.

- Angelique Chrisafis

She described their relationship as "lies, from start to finish".

Cedric G, 50, a software technician who used to run a record shop in Avignon, looked on from behind the glass-screened dock in the court. He is one of 51 men on trial over the rapes of Gisele Pelicot, whose then husband, Dominique Pelicot, crushed sleeping tablets and anti-anxiety medication into her food and invited 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.

Cedric G's ex-partner, a wheelchair user, was asked by a judge if she felt she too had been drugged and abused by Cedric G. She said: "With my sclerosis, when my muscle pain was too much, I've had medication that is a relaxant ... I don't think he did what you're insinuating, but I'm not certain."

When the judge asked if she had doubts that her boyfriend might have done so, she replied "yes".