Gisèle Pelicot plans to meet ex-husband in prison for answers on other allegations | Gisèle Pelicot
Gisèle Pelicot said she had to visit prison to look her abusive ex-husband “in the eye” after he was convicted for drugging her and inviting dozens of men to rape her in a case that shocked France and the rest of the world.
Pelicot, 73, said he needed “answers” from Dominique Pelicot about the possible abuse of his daughters and the case of a real estate agent who was raped and murdered in 1991 and for which he is under investigation.
Dominique Pelicot was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a French court in December 2024 after being found guilty of the attacks along with 50 other men he invited to rape and sexually assault his wife. There are thought to be at least 70 perpetrators, but police have not been able to identify all of them.
Questions remain about whether the couple’s daughter, Caroline Darian, was also abused by Dominique; This caused a rift, with Darian accusing his mother of not believing him after police found two photos of him unconscious and wearing underwear he didn’t recognize.
Pelicot said these revelations did not bring the family together, describing it instead as “an explosion that destroyed everything” but that he was rebuilding his relationship with his daughter, whom he now speaks to on the phone every day.
He told the New York Times that uncertainty was “inevitable hell” for Darian. “Those two photographs of her sleeping raise many questions. But I have no answers, and Monsieur Pelicot has not given her any.”
Pelicot said about her ex-husband: “I hope that when we meet face to face, he can tell me the truth about both his daughter and everything else he is accused of. Maybe he will show some remorse. I still maintain that hope. Maybe I’m naive, maybe I won’t get an answer.”
Pelicot described the day in November 2020 when her husband was brought to the station to discuss an incident in which he was caught filming women’s upskirts.
He saw a police officer’s “face begin to change” as he pointed to a stack of files. She was asked if she recognized herself in the photograph of a woman being raped by a man she did not know.
“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, almost identical, and says: ‘That’s you over there.’ I say no, and he says: ‘This is your room, Madam Pelicot, and these are your bedside lamps. “We searched your house, these are your belongings.”
The police officer said Dominique was in custody and 53 people were arrested. “She tells me that I was raped nearly 200 times. I say, ‘But that’s not possible.’ I asked for a glass of water because I couldn’t talk any more.”
He later explained that he watched the videos. “I’m a rag doll. It’s like I’m coming out of surgery, because I’m completely anesthetized. How is it possible that my body can’t feel anything when you see what these men did to me?… Luckily I have no memories, because I think I would have killed myself later.”
She described feeling shame and spending “hours in the shower trying to wash away this mess, this mess that makes you feel dehumanized.”
Pelicot also mentioned certain incidents, such as the crown on one of her teeth becoming loose, which she later realized was due to oral rape.
“When I discovered the videos showing the violence these men were inflicting on me, with my mouth slack – they have to hold my head because my face was falling, I have no muscle tone – and Monsieur Pelicot doesn’t even react. There is no empathy, no pity for this woman who is completely dead there in her bed. Even to say that to myself, that they did not spare me, was incredible violence.”
During the hearing, Pelicot waived her right to anonymity as a survivor of sexual abuse. She became a global feminist icon when she famously said of her abusers, “Shame on them,” and left court each day to the applause of the gathering crowds.
Support came from high-profile figures including French President Emmanuel Macron and the UK’s Queen Camilla, who thanked him for his “dignity and courage”.
Camilla wrote in a letter to express her “heartfelt admiration for the courage, grace and dignity you showed in confronting the terrible crimes committed against you.”
Speaking to BBC Newsnight at the weekend, Pelicot said: “I was touched and deeply honored that he recognized what had happened to me. I am very grateful to him.”
