The Financial Times have listed Gisele Pelicot on their Women Of 2024 Heroes list.
And rightly so.
Found out today, can't take it in
Well, that was a farce.........
Gransnet forums
Chat
From an article in the Sunday Times:
“Since there are 50 in total, the alleged rapists have been tried in batches and I’m just here for the final seven: Boris, Philippe, Nicolas, Nizair, Joseph, Christian, Charly. Plus Dominique Pelicot himself, who invited them all into his marital bedroom, where he had his wife waiting, drugged and naked, and who joined in and filmed it all. Pelicot, 71, crumpled and fat now, but with a residual bulky power, sits sullenly alone with his guard in a separate glass box, protected from the other men who blame and detest him.
Ordinary men in many respects, not vagrants, junkies or career criminals. This week’s seven includes a fireman, an electrician and a journalist; several are fathers, two were keen weightlifters, one bred dogs. French trials helpfully begin with a personality profile formed from interviews with the men, their friends and colleagues. Poverty, domestic violence and mental breakdowns feature, but also that a man is “kind” or “gentle”, had a lovely childhood, adored his grandparents or is devoted to his mum.
But one question overshadows all others. How many men would have done the same? If Pelicot could recruit at least 70 willing participants (a number could not be identified) within a 25-mile radius of Mazan, the Provençal town where the couple retired, how many in the whole of France? As I walk through Avignon with Juliette Campion of radio station France Info, who bears the strain of reporting this case since September, she gestures to a bureau de tabac: “You think, ‘Would a guy in there have raped Gisèle? Or men in the boulangerie or those on the street?’ Women are looking at men differently: they’re asking, ‘Could you or you or you?’ ”
In court, I hear another psychiatrist tasked with assessing whether each of the final seven defendants has the profile of a sexual abuser. One by one, he exonerates the men, saying they are not dangerous or likely to reoffend, to the growing exasperation of Gisèle’s team. Then he reaches Charly A. “He doesn’t search [for victims] systematically,” says the psychiatrist. “He’s not a predator.” Finally, Babonneau explodes: “Six times with a sleeping woman and he’s not a sexual abuser?” The men do not identify as rapists because, like this psychiatrist, they define rape as frenzied sexual violence, not an opportunistic act performed to whispers in a private home. As one defendant put it, “It’s her husband, his house, his room, his bed, his wife.”
pascal30
It seems that these men will get away with whatever they can.. they didn't view her as a person, merely as a self gratifying experience.
Goodness knows how their wives and daughters are feeling now.. I imagine there will be many marriage breakups.. How could you ever respect or take a man seriously again after this base behaviour.
I hope they all get prison sentences and that Gisele Pelicot gets the justice she deserves. What an amazingly courageous woman..
Goodness knows how their wives and daughters are feeling now.. I imagine there will be many marriage breakups.. How could you ever respect or take a man seriously again after this base behaviour.
I'm pondering that aspect, too.
We all know that once you lose respect for someone, the relationship will be strained, to say the least.
... but how can any woman, married to such a man, comfortably sleep in the same bed with him again?
And those wives with daughters will feel doubly insulted and betrayed, won't they?
I'm actually finding it hard to imagine what it must be like to be in their position. 
Join the conversation
Registering is free, easy, and means you can join the discussion, watch threads and lots more.
Register now »Already registered? Log in with:
Gransnet »