Mazan rapes

In September 2024, Dominique Pélicot, a 71-year-old man from Mazan in south-eastern France, testified in court that he repeatedly drugged his wife, raped her, and invited strangers to rape her while she was unconscious. Over a period of nine years, from July 2011 to October 2020, Gisèle Pélicot, who was unaware of the abuse being perpetrated against her, was raped 92 times by 72 men, with her husband watching and filming. The crimes only came to light in September 2020 when Dominique Pélicot was arrested for taking upskirt photographs of women in a supermarket and the ensuing police invesigation discovered thousands of images and videos of men raping Gisèle Pélicot on his computing equipment. He is also accused of inciting Jean-Pierre Maréchal to drug and rape his own wife. The trial in Avignon of Dominique Pélicot and 50 other men accused of rape began on 2 September 2024, and is scheduled to conclude in mid-December.

Mazan rapes

Mazan Villiers-sur-Marne Drôme Villeparisis Mazan rapes (France)
Native name	Viols de Mazan
Date	July 2011 – October 2020
Location	Mazan, France Paris, France Drôme, France
Also known as	Pélicot case
Type	Rape
Non-fatal injuries	Gisèle Pélicot Mme. Maréchal
Accused	Dominique Pélicot Jean-Pierre Maréchal 49 others
Charges	Aggravated rape

Gisèle Pélicot's decision to waive her right to anonymity and her insistence on a public trial attracted worldwide media attention and admiration for her courage. The trial drew attention to drug-facilitated sexual assault (chemical submission) and issues around consent.

Background

Gisèle and Dominique Pélicot, who were both born 1952, married in 1973. Gisèle Pélicot was born in Germany to a French family. Her father was in the military and, despite losing her mother at the age of nine, she described a happy childhood. She met her husband, who she said had had a tough childhood, when she was twenty. She worked in administration at the state electricity company, while Dominique Pélicot worked as an electrician and an estate agent and set up a number of businesses which ultimately failed. The couple lived in the Paris area and had three children. To people who knew them, Gisèle Pélicot said in court, they were a perfect family. She also said in court that she had had a three-year affair with a colleague. The couple had been divorced for a short period for financial reasons before remarrying.

Gisèle Pélicot was unaware that her husband had been caught upskirting women near Paris in 2010 and fined €100. In 2013 the couple retired to Mazan, Vaucluse, a small town north-east of Avignon, in south-eastern France. Gisèle Pélicot joined a choir and her husband took up sport and cycling. They were visited by their children and grandchildren for holidays.

Arrest and investigation

Dominique Pélicot was arrested on 12 September 2020 after he had been apprehended by a security guard for upskirting women using his mobile phone at an E.Leclerc supermarket in Carpentras, near Mazan. He was released on bail pending investigation of his two mobile phones, laptop, and other digital equipment that had been seized at his home. Investigation of the equipment showed that he had been a part of a private chatroom called à son insu ("without her knowledge"), hosted on the Coco.gg website, in which members discussed performing sexual acts on women without their consent, often after administering drugs to them. The website, which was registered in Guernsey, was connected to more than 23,000 French criminal cases from 2021 to 2024, and was shut down in June 2024. In the chatroom Dominique Pélicot invited other men to rape his wife; Skype messages were also found in which he boasted of drugging his wife and invited strangers to rape her.

On a USB stick connected to Dominique Pélicot's computer, investigators found a folder called "abuses" containing more than 20,000 images and videos of his unconscious wife being raped. The videos had been meticulously filed with explicit titles and the names of the men.

The investigators identified 92 separate incidents of rape committed on Gisèle Pélicot by 72 different men between July 2011 to October 2020. It took the police two years to identify and locate 50 of the perpetrators; the rest remain unidentified. The men were aged between 21 and 68 at the time of the rapes.

Images were also found on Dominique Pélicot's computer of his daughters-in-law in the shower, which had been taken with a hidden camera, and of his semi-naked daughter Caroline Darian unconscious on a bed as if she had been drugged.

Re-arrest and confession

Feminist graffiti in Paris: M'endors pas (Don't sedate me).

Dominique Pélicot was re-arrested on 2 November 2020 and charged with aggravated rape, drugging, and other sexual offences. He was also accused of violating the privacy of his wife, daughter, and two daughters-in-law by covertly taking and disseminating intimate images of them. He immediately admitted his guilt.

On the same day, Gisèle Pélicot were asked to attend a separate interview by the police. Questioned about her sex life, she said she had never taken part in wife swapping or threesomes. She was shown a photograph, but did not recognise the sleeping woman or the man raping her. It was only when shown further images that she recognised herself. She later testified: "I asked him to stop. It was unbearable. I was inert, in my bed, and a man was raping me. My world fell apart."

Dominique Pélicot told investigators that the abuse started after his wife had been prescribed lorazepam (Temesta), an anxiolytic drug, which caused her to be drowsy. He took advantage of this by secretly adding Temesta to his wife's food and drinks, causing her to lose consciousness and allowing him to commit sexual acts, such as anal sex, which his wife had not wished to participate in. He would film the abuse, sometimes committed after he had taken Viagra, and share the videos online. He then invited strangers from the online chatroom to watch him abusing his wife, and on occasion to abuse her themselves. No money changed hands. The men were given strict instructions, for example, to avoid smelling of fragrance of cigarette smoke, in case it alerted Gisèle Pélicot to their presence. They were not required to use condoms, even though one man, who abused Gisèle Pélicot six times, was HIV positive. Although Gisèle Pélicot did not contract HIV, she was found to have four sexually transmitted infections after the abuse came to light. In order to drug his wife, Dominique Pélicot obtained additional Temesta from his own doctor; he had been prescribed 450 pills in one year alone.

The abuse took a significant toll on Gisèle Pélicot's health. She lost weight and her hair started to fall out. She experienced memory loss and at times spoke incoherently, to the extent that she worried that she might have Alzheimer's disease or a brain tumour. She visited a number of doctors, but was always accompanied by her husband, who blamed her symptoms on exhaustion caused by looking after their grandchildren. None of the doctors suspected that she was being drugged. A psychologist said that Dominique Pelicot had trouble accepting the harm he had done, instead complaining that the trial had "destroyed his life", and that if he hadn't been arrested, he "would still be happy, and she too – everything would have continued the same way."

In 2022, the Pélicots' daughter Caroline Darian published a book about the case titled Et j'ai cessé de t'appeler Papa (And I Stopped Calling You Dad). She also established a non-profit organisation called M'endors Pas (Don't sedate me) to raise awareness of drug-facilitated sexual assault.

Indictment and trial

On 19 June 2023, Gwenola Journot, an investigating judge from the Avignon Judicial Court, published a 370-page report indicting 51 men for rape. A 52nd suspect died of cancer before being arrested. The accused, who faced prison sentences of up to 20 years if found guilty, ranged in age from 25 to 72 and came from numerous walks of life – firefighter, IT worker, journalist, nurse, plumber, prison guard, and truck driver, with 41 of them being from Vaucluse. Many had partners and children. Most were charged with one count of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault but a few were charged with multiple offences, including in one case six counts of rape. One man was charged, not with the rape of Gisèle Pélicot, but with drugging and raping his own wife. Dominique Pélicot was also charged with the same offence. While 49 were charged with rape, one of the accused was charged with attempted rape and one with sexual assault. A total of 23 of the accused had previous convictions, including six for domestic violence and two for sexual violence. Some of the accused admitted their guilt, whilst others claimed that the acts were consensual, with Gisèle Pélicot pretending to be asleep or agreeing to be drugged, or that her husband's consent was sufficient. Five of the men were also charged with possessing images of child sexual abuse. Twelve of the accused appealed their indictment but on the Court of Appeal in Nîmes rejected the appeal on 5 October 2023.

The trial, heard by a panel of five judges led by presiding judge Roger Arata, began at the Judicial Court in Avignon on 2 September 2024 and was expected to last until 20 December 2024. At the request of Gisèle Pélicot, the proceedings were held in public. Eighteen of the accused were detained, while 32 were attending the trial as free men and one was being judged in absentia. The courtroom was specially adapted to accommodate the large number of defendants and about sixty lawyers, with a separate transmission room for the press and public.

Gisèle Pélicot, who was supported in court by her three children and represented by lawyers Stéphane Babonneau and Antoine Camus, testified during the first week of the trial. She explained that her world had fallen apart when the police had told her in November 2020 that she had been drugged and raped. "I was sacrificed on the altar of vice" she said. Her husband affirmed to the court that he was guilty of drugging and raping her.

On 10 September 2024, the court heard from Jean-Pierre Maréchal, the only one of the defendants who was not accused of raping or assaulting Gisèle Pélicot. Instead he had been given instructions by Dominique Pélicot on how to drug and rape his own wife. He had admitted the charges. Dominique Pélicot travelled to Drôme a number of times between 2015 and 2020 to rape Maréchal's wife in their home.

Dominique Pélicot gave evidence in court for the first time on 17 September. He admitted his guilt, as he had done since his arrest in November 2020, saying "I am a rapist like the others in this room." He asked his family for forgiveness. He recounted a traumatic childhood and told how he was raped by a male nurse when he was nine years old. He said he had always loved his wife and had felt suicidal when he discovered she had been having an affair. Asked why he had not stopped drugging and abusing his wife when she developed health problems caused by the drugs, he replied that his addiction had been too strong. Gisèle Pélicot was given a chance to respond to her husband's evidence and said: "It is difficult for me to listen to this. For 50 years, I lived with a man who I would've never imagined could be capable of this. I trusted him completely." The following day, Gisèle Pélicot was questioned by defence lawyers, who had selected a small number of images, from the thousands on her husband's computer, that appeared to show her conscious, sometimes with a sex toy. One lawyer asked her if she was an exhibitionist. Gisèle Pélicot said that she found the lawyers' questions insulting, adding: "And I understand why rape victims don't press charges."

The cross examination of the remaining defendants lasted from 19 September to 19 November, with the court taking a week's break at the end of October. The court screened videos of an unconscious Gisèle Pélicot being raped by the accused. Initially, for reasons of decency, presiding judge Arata had ruled to exclude journalists and members of the public from the screenings. Following arguments from Gisèle Pélicot's legal team, the judge reversed his decision. Most of the accused denied the charge of rape, saying that they were unaware Gisèle Pélicot was unconscious and unable to consent. Some claimed they thought they were taking part in a couple's sexual fantasy or that the husband's consent was sufficient; some claimed diminished responsibility.

Gisèle Pélicot's three children, who were plaintiffs in the case (French: parties civiles) gave evidence on 18 November to tell of the devastation that had been wrought on their family. David Pélicot spoke of a son in therapy; Florian Pélicot spoke of his divorce. Caroline Darian was convinced her father had drugged and abused her in spite of his denials, and said she felt like the forgotten victim in the case.

On 19 November, Gisèle Pélicot took the stand for the last time. "This is a trial of cowardice", she said, adding that it was time to examine a macho patriarchal society that trivialised rape. Whilst admitting that it was her husband who orchestrated the abuse, she asked why not one of the accused had reported him to the police when they saw the state she was in. Defence lawyers suggested that she still felt sympathy for her husband or was under his control. One of them asked why she still used her married name after her divorce, to which she replied that her grandchildren were called Pélicot and she wanted them to be proud of the name that was known across the world. People would associate the name with her, and not her husband.

The prosecution delivered their closing arguments on 25-27 November. Demanding a 20-year sentence for Dominique Pélicot, prosecutor Laure Chabaud said that a 20-year sentence, the maximum sentence for rape under French law, was "both a lot... and too little given the gravity of the acts that were committed and repeated". Chabaud and her fellow prosecutor demanded a four-year sentence for one of the accused and sentences of between 10 and 18 years for the others. Chabaud said that such sentences would send a message of hope to all victims of sexual violence.

The closing arguments of the defence began on 27 November, with Dominique Pélicot's lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, the first to speak. She told the court that she had the utmost respect for Gisèle Pélicot and her family, and asked them to remember the man who at one time had been a devoted family man. In a speech that quoted Sigmund Freud, John Betjeman and Boris Cyrulnik, she argued that childhood trauma had caused a split in Dominique Pélicot's mind and caused his perversity.

Impact of the trial

Gisèle Pélicot's decision to waive her right to anonymity and her insistence on a public trial established her as a feminist icon and raised awareness of drug-facilitated sexual assault, a culture of rape, and the question of consent. Media outlets from around the world covered the trial. A group of women called Amazons of Avignon (French: L'Amazone Avignon) plastered walls near the court with messages of support for Gisèle Pélicot and applauded her as she left court each day. Blandine Deverlanges, founder of the group, said: "She has shown such dignity and courage and humanity. It was a huge gift to [French women] that she chose to speak to the whole world in front of her rapist".

On 14 September 2024, feminist organisations arranged protests in 30 areas throughout France to express solidarity with Gisèle Pélicot and other victims of sexual violence, with 700 demonstrators at the Place de la Republique in Paris and 200 at the Palais de Justice in Marseille. There were further demonstrations in support of Gisèle Pélicot in Paris, Lyon and other French cities in October.

The trial raised issues around consent in French law and the need to revise the penal code, which currently defines rape as "any act sex of sexual penetration committed against another person by violence, constraint, threat or surprise". with no mention of consent.

Other charges against Dominique Pélicot

While on remand, Dominique Pélicot was charged with the rape and murder of a 23-year-old estate agent Sophie Narme in Paris in 1991 and with the attempted rape of a 19-year-old estate agent in Villeparisis, Seine-et-Marne. Both women had been showing a man round an appartment when they were attacked. Charges were brought by the cold case unit at Nanterre. Dominique Pélicot initially denied both crimes but admitted the attempted rape when told that his DNA matched a sample taken at the scene. The woman had been drugged with ether but had managed to fight back and escape. The DNA match had previously been noted when he was arrested for upskirting in Collégien in 2010, but at that time the police failed to pursue the matter. Dominique Pélicot continued to deny the rape and murder of Sophie Narme; a DNA sample taken from the scene had been lost.

Documentaries

ITN Productions and Channel 5 will make a documentary on the Pélicot case titled The Pelicot Rape Case: A Town on Trial, which will be released on 11 December 2024. Caroline Darian will narrate a documentary made by France Télévisions.

See also

• DPP v Morgan
• Intimate partner violence
• Rape in France