Gisèle Pélicot, who has been hailed as a feminist role model in France since she insisted that the negotiations take place in public, was not present in the courtroom on Monday when the trial resumed. Instead, the prosecution presented a picture of eight men suspected of rape, who will be tried next.
One of them is a 41-year-old man accused of raping Gisèle Pélicot in Paris five years ago. Several people who know the man have told investigators that he previously told them how he was raped by an adult man, one of his father's friends, when he was a teenager.
Another, a 50-year-old developer accused of planning to subject his own wife to similar crimes, has said that he was raped by his own uncle when he was a child.
A third man, a 63-year-old HIV-infected man, is accused of assaulting the woman unprotected on several occasions.
35 of the other suspected rapists have already been heard in court, and several of them claim to have believed that Gisèle Pélicot gave her consent, which she denies.
The trial against 71-year-old Dominique Pélicot and 50 other men in Avignon, France, began on September 2 and is expected to last for nearly four months.
The men are all accused of assaulting Gisèle Pélicot, 72. Several of the defendants risk 20 years in prison for aggravated rape.
Before the assaults, Dominique Pélicot drugged his wife to such an extent that she was almost unconscious, according to the prosecution. She therefore did not know what was happening until it was discovered in 2020.
The evidence consists of tens of thousands of images and films showing at least 70 different men raping Pélicot – assaults that took place over a ten-year period. The defendants are between 25 and 75 years old, including a former police officer, a local politician, and a journalist. Many have families and children, according to French media.
The trial is open to the public at the request of Gisèle Pélicot, who has also agreed to have her name and image published.
The evidence also includes intimate images of the Pélicot's daughter and two stepdaughters, taken without their knowledge.
