AnungIkwe ᐊᓈᓐg ᐃᑴGisèle Pelicot rape trial: children tell of ‘devastation’ caused by their father<br><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/18/gisele-pelicot-trial-children-devastation-caused-father" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/18/gisele-pelicot-trial-children-devastation-caused-father</a><br><br>"Gisèle Pelicot’s children have described their “devastation” to learn that their father had drugged their mother and invited dozens of men to rape her, begging him in court to tell the truth about whether he had abused other members of the family.<br><br>David Pelicot, 50, the couple’s oldest son, told the court in Avignon on Monday that he believed his sister Caroline Darian, 45, when she said she felt certain that she too had been drugged and abused by Dominique Pelicot, after photos were found on his computer of her asleep in bed in underwear that she did not recognise as her own.<br><br>Turning to his father who sat looking on, emotionless, in the glass-fronted dock, David Pelicot said: “If you have any little bit of humanity left, tell the truth on what you did to my sister, who is still suffering every day and will suffer all her life.”<br><br>Dominique Pelicot shouted that he had never abused his daughter or any of his grandchildren. He asked for forgiveness from his son, who replied: “Never.”<br><br>Dominique Pelicot, a retired estate agent, is accused of drugging Gisèle Pelicot by crushing sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication into her food and drink, then inviting 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.<br><br>The 71-year-old, who kept hundreds of videos of rape on his computer in a file entitled “abuse”, has admitted the charges, telling the court: “I am a rapist.” A total of 51 men are on trial with him. Some admit rape but others have said they did not know Gisèle Pelicot was drugged despite video evidence showing her unconscious and snoring loudly.<br><br>Gisèle Pelicot, 72, a former logistics manager, has become a feminist hero after insisting that the rape trial of her ex-husband and the other men be held in public to raise awareness of the use of drugs and sedation to rape women. “It’s not for us to have shame, it’s for them,” she has said.<br><br>On Monday David Pelicot, a sales manager from outside Paris, told the court he and his family’s “lives were destroyed” when investigators found video evidence of multiple rapes of his mother following Dominique Pelicot’s arrest for filming up the skirts of women in a supermarket in Carpentras.<br><br>He said he felt “the ground was pulled from under my feet” and that he had repeatedly vomited when he was told. He then travelled with his siblings to empty the house where his parents had lived during the abuse, calling it the “house of horror”. He and his siblings, he said, had noticed his mother’s apparent “absences” in conversations and thought she had Alzheimer’s or a brain tumour. “I thought I’d lose her,” he said.<br><br>Dominique Pelicot is also on trial for taking photographs of his adult daughter, Darian, as well as his son’s wives, when they were naked without their knowledge. The photographs of the sons’ wives, discovered during the investigation, are alleged to have been taken with hidden cameras in bathrooms and other rooms.<br><br>David Pelicot said his own wife had been photographed naked, including while pregnant. Turning to his father, he said: “When I discovered that my wife, when pregnant with twins, was photographed – and I don’t know how many photographs – I want to ask: ‘How could you do such a thing?’ I keep asking myself why, what was the aim? I can’t answer that question. But what I understand is that man went up the scale of fantasies with a violence that he always had in him.”<br><br>The court heard that an investigation was taking place into whether Dominique Pelicot may have abused any of his grandchildren. Pelicot repeated that he had not done so.<br>Darian told the court: “I know I was sedated. It’s not a supposition, it’s a reality. I know it.” She said the only difference between her and her mother was that there was “tangible” and “inescapable” evidence in her mother’s abuse. She said she had created a foundation to raise awareness on drugging and rape so that French society could face the issue and victims could have a voice. She said she felt “invisible and forgotten” in the case."<br><br>Archived:<br><a href="https://archive.ph/cdzaj" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://archive.ph/cdzaj</a><br><br>RESOURCES:<br><br>France mass rape trial: Sons of Gisele Pelicot arrive to court | AFP <br><a href="https://youtu.be/o82tuxPNMMQ" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/o82tuxPNMMQ</a><br><br>LIVE | Gisele Pelicot Case | Pelicot France | Gisele Pelicot France | Gisele Pelicot Video | N18G<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/uSpAOtALuE8" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/live/uSpAOtALuE8</a><br><br><a class="hashtag" href="https://spinster.xyz/tag/giselepelicotcase" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#GiselePelicotCase</a> <a class="hashtag" href="https://spinster.xyz/tag/radicalfeminism" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#RadicalFeminism</a> <a class="hashtag" href="https://spinster.xyz/tag/radfem" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#RadFem</a> <a class="hashtag" href="https://spinster.xyz/tag/feminism" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Feminism</a> <a class="hashtag" href="https://spinster.xyz/tag/feminist" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Feminist</a> <a class="hashtag" href="https://spinster.xyz/tag/malesexualviolence" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#MaleSexualViolence</a> <a class="hashtag" href="https://spinster.xyz/tag/malesexualpolitics" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#MaleSexualPolitics</a> <a class="hashtag" href="https://spinster.xyz/tag/dominiquepelicot" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#DominiquePelicot</a> <a class="hashtag" href="https://spinster.xyz/tag/rapist" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Rapist</a> <a class="hashtag" href="https://spinster.xyz/tag/france" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#France</a> <a class="hashtag" href="https://spinster.xyz/tag/rape" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#rape</a> <a class="hashtag" href="https://spinster.xyz/tag/trial" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#trial</a> <a class="hashtag" href="https://spinster.xyz/tag/sexualassault" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#SexualAssault</a> <a class="hashtag" href="https://spinster.xyz/tag/rapeculture" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#RapeCulture</a> <a class="hashtag" href="https://spinster.xyz/tag/giselepelicotshero" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#GiselePelicotShero</a>