In France, a scandal in which 71-year-old Dominique Pelicot invited at least 50 different men to her home and had them rape her wife after drugging her, has sparked outrage over the judge’s decision. Judge Roger Arata’s announcement in the court in Avignon, France, that Dominique Pelicot could not attend the hearing because she was ill and that the case would be postponed, was met with backlash.
SHOWS WERE HELD IN MANY CITIES
Following the postponement of the trial, women’s associations in the country held protests in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Annecy, Rouen, Rennes, Tours, Clermont-Ferrand, Montpellier and Nice for 72-year-old Gisele Pelikot, who was subjected to gang rape. Thousands of women gathered in Republic Square in Paris to condemn the court’s decision. The demonstrators carried banners reading “Shame must switch sides”, “Victims we believe you, rapists we see you”, “Stop violence against women and children” and “A femicide every 3 days, a rape every 7 minutes”.
50 PEOPLE WERE IDENTIFIED
In 2020, Dominique Pelicot was first caught by a security guard secretly taking photos of women up their skirts in a supermarket, and after the incident, police found images of her husband on Pelicot’s phone and computer. Gisele Pelicot, who was unaware of the sexual assaults she had suffered because she was under the influence of drugs, left her husband after being informed by the police. Later investigation revealed that Pelicot had invited men to her home with her husband via a website.
According to reports in the French press, Pelicot had set certain rules for people who came to the house, such as not talking loudly, taking their clothes off in the kitchen, and not using perfume. After about two years of investigation, the police were able to identify 50 of the 72 suspects, whose ages ranged from 22 to 70. More than 3,800 photos and videos of those moments were found on Dominique Pelicot’s computer.
Source: UAV