Dominique Pelicot, the ex-husband of Gisèle Pelicot, has pleaded guilty to charges of drugging and raping her for almost a decade and arranging for up to dozens of strangers he met online to abuse her unconscious body. His trial, along with that of 50 other men, most charged with aggravated rape, began in Avignon in September. A verdict is expected on Thursday.
Despite Mr. Pelicot’s guilty plea, under the French legal system a trial is held for society to understand the truth of what happened, experts say.
Here is a timeline of events in the case, based on court records and testimony.
1973
The Pelicots marry, two years after meeting. “We were so in love, we didn’t want to be apart,” Ms. Pelicot told the court at the trial.
1974
The first of their three children is born. They settle on the outskirts of Paris, where Ms. Pelicot, now 72, is the family’s main breadwinner as a manager in a big public company, and Mr. Pelicot, also now 72, works at different jobs, including as a real estate agent.
2010
Mr. Pelicot is caught filming women under their skirts in a shopping mall near Paris, using a miniature camera concealed in a pen. He is arrested and fined 100 euros for “capturing indecent images.” Ms. Pelicot learned of the arrest only in 2020 from an investigative judge, in the lead-up to the current trial. “If I had been informed, maybe I would have left him, or not,” she told the court. “But I would have been more attentive.”
July 2011
Mr. Pelicot starts drugging his wife, he said in court. Ms. Pelicot told the court that she recalled she had a blackout on a Saturday in 2011 when she slept in until 6 p.m. Later, as the drugging became more regular, she said, she suffered frequent unexplained blackouts that she feared were the symptoms of Alzheimer’s or a brain tumor.
2013
The couple retire and move to a bungalow with a garden and a pool in Mazan, a small town near Avignon, in the south of France. Their children and grandchildren visit regularly.
2014
Adrien Longeron, then 24, is the first stranger that evidence shows Mr. Pelicot filmed penetrating Ms. Pelicot while she was asleep in her bed. The footage taken this year is among thousands of videos and photos the police later found on Mr. Pelicot’s electronics. Mr. Longeron is among the dozens who were charged with aggravated rape. He pleaded not guilty.
Sept. 12, 2020
Mr. Pelicot is arrested after a security guard catches him filming up the skirts of women with his smartphone in a supermarket in Carpentras, a town near Mazan. The police seize the two phones, a camera and a video recorder he is carrying, as well as a laptop, a USB key and an SD card from his home. He is released while awaiting charges and tells Ms. Pelicot about the event.
Nov. 2, 2020
Ms. Pelicot meets with the police in Carpentras, believing she will hear about the supermarket event. Instead, the police tell her about the videos they have found on her husband’s electronics and say that they believe her husband has been drugging her for years and inviting dozens of men into their home to rape her alongside him.
Nov. 3, 2020
The Pelicots’ children help her move out of the house, which is now a crime scene. The police show Caroline Darian, the middle child and only daughter (who goes by a pen name) two photos recovered from her father’s electronics that show her sleeping in a strange position, with the duvet pulled back and the lights on. She testifies that she is convinced her father drugged and sexually assaulted her. He denies the accusations and says he did not take the photos.
Feb. 9, 2021
The police make the first arrests of other men charged in the case, using photos, as well as records from Skype conversations, phone calls and text messages, to track most of them down. Mr. Pelicot had directed the police to a hard drive in his garage where they had discovered thousands of images and videos he had taken and edited. Many were stored in a folder named “Abuse.”
Sept. 2, 2024
The trial begins. Ms. Pelicot takes the stand and explains her decision to allow a trial to be public and refuse the anonymity offered by law to victims of sexual assault. She says she wants society to change the way it deals with rape. “So when other women, if they wake up with no memory, they might remember the testimony of Ms. Pelicot,” she tells the court calmly. “No woman should suffer from being drugged and victimized.”
Sept. 14
Thousands of women participate in protests across France to support Ms. Pelicot.
Dec. 19
A verdict is expected in the trial.
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