How could you betray me, Gisèle Pélicot asks ex-husband in court confrontation

Victim of France’s largest rape trial takes to stand to give testimony against Dominique Pélicot

Gisèle Pélicot, the victim of France’s largest rape trial, confronted her ex-husband in court for the first time, asking him: “How could you betray me?”
Ms Pélicot faced away from Dominique Pélicot, her ex-husband who drugged her unconscious and enlisted upwards of 70 men to rape her in their home, as she spoke on Wednesday.
“I’m trying to understand how this man, who was the perfect man for me, could have come to this. How could he betray me so? How could you let people into my bedroom?”
For weeks, Ms Pélicot, 71, remained stoically silent in the criminal court in Avignon, southern France, as she heard the harrowing details of what she called her husband’s “immeasurable” betrayal.
Invited to take the stand to respond to testimony as the trial reaches its halfway mark, Ms Pélicot described her marriage of 50 years as a happy and fulfilling one, in which they shared three children and seven grandchildren.
“You were a kind and caring man for me, and I never doubted your trust. We shared our laughter, we shared our sorrows,” she said, her voice breaking.
“How many times have I said to him, ‘how lucky I am to have you by my side’. For ten years, during my health worries, he never let me go, he accompanied me to the neurologist, to the gynaecologist. He’s someone I put all my trust in.”
Detectives have listed a total of 92 rapes committed by 72 men, 51 of whom have been identified and charged so far.
“I don’t understand how he could have come to this. And I’ll tell him: I’ve always tried to pull you up, towards the light. You chose the depths of the human soul. It was your choice,” she said.
She said she was unconscious during all the rapes, saying she suffered memory lapses and hair and weight loss as a result of being repeatedly drugged.
The court also heard that their marriage survived an extramarital affair on the part of Ms Pélicot, and that Mr Pélicot had written a memoir in 2011 at the encouragement of his daughter, in which he wrote about being abused and raped as a boy.
During her testimony, Ms Pélicot shared how her husband prepared many of the couple’s meals, a gesture she mistook for a “thoughtful, caring person”.
Dominique Pélicot told the court last week that he regularly crushed anti-anxiety drugs in her food, including in her favourite dessert, raspberry ice cream.
Ms Pelicot recalled one particular meal where he prepared mashed potatoes for dinner and ice cream for dessert.
“I didn’t feel dizzy, my heart didn’t race. I must have sunk very, very quickly into nothingness. The next morning I woke up in my pyjamas. I was more tired than other mornings”, she said.
Asked if she had any responses to the proceedings of the trial so far, Ms Pélicot addressed the women who have taken the stand to defend the character of the accused.
“I have seen these women, these mothers, these sisters testify on the stand that her son, her brother, her father, her husband was an exceptional man,” she said.
“I had the same one at home. A rapist isn’t someone you meet in a car park late at night. He can also be in the family, among friends.”
Turning her attention to one of her accused rapists who took the stand last week, she said: “I am also a mother and grandmother… I could have been his grandmother.
“I am a woman who is totally destroyed, and don’t know how I can pick myself up from this.”
Ms Pelicot told the court that listening to the testimony had made her feel violated all over again, but she hoped that her presence at the trial served a greater purpose.
“I want victims of rapes to tell themselves, ‘if Ms Pelicot did it, so can we’. I don’t want the victims to feel shame, they are the ones who should feel shame,” she said, referring to her accused abusers.
Since the start of the trial, Ms Pelicot has been upheld as a feminist hero for electing to waive her anonymity and open the case to the public and press so that “shame changes sides.”
Her arrival and departure from the courthouse were greeted by rounds of applause and bouquets of flowers from members of the public.
Ms Pélicot is expected to speak again at the later stages of the trial, which is expected to run until Dec 20.