Giselle Pellicot waived her anonymity in a French rape trial, revealing her husband drugged and invited over 80 men to rape her.
He filmed the assaults, leading to France's largest rape trial, raising questions about societal issues and internet porn's influence.
Transcript:
Speaker 2
Myself today in front of you. This process was a very difficult journey. And at this moment, I think in the first place to my three children. That was Giselle Pellico. You know who she is by now. She's the woman who waved her anonymity to tell France, and indeed the world, the most horrific case of multiple rape it is almost possible to imagine. She was standing outside the court today talking about her profound emotion and her thoughts with her three children. Our sentences were handed down, one of which will see her ex-husband jailed for drugging and rape for 20 years.
Jon Sopel
And there were 50 other men convicted as well who will also face jail sentences for what they did in this macabre and grotesque mass rape, biggest that France has ever seen. But have we witnessed something that was unique to this place near Avignon? Or does this lift the lid on a wider problem and crisis in the way that men relate to women? Welcome to the News Agents. It's John. It's Emily. And later in the podcast, we're going to be talking about the Observer newspaper and its purchase by Tortoise Media. And we have the first interview with the new owner, the head of Tortoise Media, who has bought The Observer in a kind of bizarre takeover. And that is James Harding. That's still to come.
Speaker 2
But we're going to start with the story of Giselle Pelico, who has become something of an icon, I think it's fair to say, to women right around the world for her decision to waive her anonymity In this rape trial, rape case. And you should be warned that the details of this are extremely upsetting because it is the story of how her husband, a 72-year man, not only drugged his wife, not only raped her while She was drugged, but also invited people, strangers from around the community to come and do the same. And they did.
Jon Sopel
More than 80 different men came to rape the wife who was not even conscious. The detail that has come out in court, the detail that people have watched because he videoed and recorded the whole bloody thing, are just kind of mind-boggling. That there are men having sex with a woman who is snoring because she's fast asleep because she's been so heavily drugged she's faced gynecological problems since then and today was The denouement of the whole case in Avignon in what has become France's biggest rape trial but of course it's not just about 50 individuals facing charges for rape. (Time 0:00:10)
Societal Implications of the Trial
The trial questions whether the rapes are a localized event or indicative of a broader societal problem.
The acts raise concerns about desensitization and men's perception of women, potentially linked to internet pornography.
Transcript:
Jon Sopel
It is something much bigger about where we are as a society. Is it about internet porn? Is it about people having been totally desensitised that men would think this is either okay to do or erotic to do? (Time 0:03:11)
Lenient Sentencing
While the guilty verdicts brought some satisfaction, the sentences were considered lenient, sparking debate in France.
One defendant claimed his "body was present but his brain wasn't," receiving a 12-year sentence.
Transcript:
Jon Sopel
Because it just seems unfathomable what has happened.
Speaker 2
And the family were in the court today when the sentences were being handed down. And I think it's fair to say that although there was satisfaction at hearing that guilty verdict read out so many times, there was a slight astonishment that the sentences themselves Didn't seem to be weightier, longer. France gives a maximum 20-year sentence for rape, and that is what Dominique, her ex-husband, got. But there were other men, including one who, as you say, had found himself tape-recorded, tried to pretend he hadn't been there, ended up saying that his body might have been there, But his brain wasn't there. That was his actual defence. And he came away with a 12-year sentence. And there were many that were lesser than that. And I guess this will start a whole new debate, actually, in France about the sentencing of such a horrific crime and whether it really matches up to the times we live The other interesting Thing that I thought about (Time 0:03:27)
Moral Ambiguity of Defendants
Some defendants displayed a moral ambiguity, claiming they believed the acts were consensual due to the husband's assurances.
Their families' support further highlights the disturbing nature of the case and raises questions about their understanding of consent.
Transcript:
Jon Sopel
The case today was that the defendants often had their own families there in support of them. And there is a sort of moral ambiguity, I think, from certain of these men who think, well, I thought it was all right. The husband told me she was fine about it. So I thought it was OK. It was his wife. Yeah, it was his wife. So I was just going along with what he said. I was just going along with what he said. So, yeah, what's wrong with that? Yeah. And you just think, golly. And the idea that the families would be in support whilst the husband is sent down, kids watching their dad sent down for rape, it's kind of, there is so much about this that's so disturbing. (Time 0:04:30)
Courtroom Atmosphere
Amelia Jen, reporting from Avignon, describes the intense atmosphere in the courtroom, with victims, suspects, and families in close proximity.
Protesters chanted "rapists, we see you" as suspects with packed bags arrived, highlighting the raw emotions.
Transcript:
Speaker 2
Well, Amelia Jen is the Channel 4 correspondent and she's there in Avignon for them at the moment. And she watched the whole thing. And what you get from her is this sense of the proximity of all the bodies and all the people and all the emotion in this tiny courtroom in southern France. Amelia, thanks so much for joining us. Just give us a sense of the emotion that was playing out in court today.
Amelia Jen
I mean, it was incredible. People were queuing from 7am outside the courthouse, probably earlier, just to get in to support her. When the verdicts came out, people were shouting, chanting. The most sort of striking element of it for me, really, was just before Gis Pellicle arrived, all of the suspects, not all of them, but a considerable amount of them arrived on foot with Packed bags, walking into court past more than 100 people who'd been waiting since dawn to support her. So that was quite an incredible thing to see. I was doing a piece of camera and one of them just walked straight in front and they were being shouted at. The protesters were shouting, rapists, we see you. And then we all went into court. The verdicts were handed down. It was quite quick, one by one. He found them all guilty of either rape or sexual assault, but the majority of them rape. And then outside it just sort of erupted. We could see Giselle relatively far away, she was sort of watching, looking at each man as the sentence was held down.
Jon Sopel
And what about the families of the men? Because I've read reports that a lot of them were in tears. And you kind of think, what are you in tears about? Is it that you've been caught? It that you've been ashamed? It's such an extraordinary case.
Amelia Jen
I mean, it was really interesting. Again, a lot of them were coming in with their families, including some of them really quite young children as well. And then obviously once the verdicts were handed down, they sort of burst out of the courtroom. Some of them just left. Others stayed for a little bit. There was a lot of anger. We saw one of the men actually was able to leave court because he had served his sentence or the custodial part at least already. So he left and he was completely besieged by protesters. His family, we think it was his partner, was following him and she was just incredibly upset telling everyone to turn their cameras off. So there was, it was incredibly dramatic. I mean, that's the most amazing thing about all of this, really, how close everyone was to each other. I mean, it's a relatively big core, but there were so many people there. You had Giselle Pellicot walking in just moments after the men who raped her. You had the families in the mix as well, hundreds of people outside, hundreds of journalists inside as well, just all sort of next to each other. (Time 0:05:10)
Normality of Suspects
The "normality" of the suspects is a shocking aspect, as they held regular jobs like journalists, firefighters, and nurses.
Their willingness to participate, given their proximity to the victim, is astonishing.
Transcript:
Speaker 2
The phrase that we keep coming back to on this whole trial is about the normalness, the normality of the men involved. You know, it's a whole community of nearly 50 men, 50 rapists, who were all just, you know, regular jobs, regular dads, regular husbands. There's something that's sort of quite shocking about that.
Amelia Jen
And everyone here is calling them Monsieur Tudumon collectively just because there are so many of them. And they come from all walks of life as a journalist, a firefighter. A lot of them actually are in professions where they have to care for people as a nurse. And again, the proximity thing, the fact that so many men were willing to do this when given the chance, who happened to live also so close to the victim, is really sort of astonishing. (Time 0:07:53)
Undetected Crimes
The case raises concerns about similar crimes going undetected.
The meticulous documentation by the perpetrator and a chance discovery during an unrelated arrest exposed the crimes.
Transcript:
Jon Sopel
Wasn't there some suggestion today that maybe we try to make sense of this to say, oh, my God, this is this one strange village that it was hyperlocal and just some really weird shit went Down there. And the suggestion being that this is the dark web and this may be happening in all sorts of other places as well. But we just don't know about it.
Amelia Jen
And I suppose that's the most amazing thing as well, is the fact that Dominique Pellico so meticulously documented this. And really, he only got caught because the security guard in a supermarket happened to see him upskirting people. The police arrested him for that. They seized his devices. And it was only then that they came across those videos. And in fact, there are 51 men who have been sentenced today. But there are, we think, up to 30, or police say, up to 30 more who they haven't been able to identify. It's (Time 0:08:38)
