Gisèle Pélicot's husband is accused of inviting men to rape her. She wants you to know her name
CBC
WARNING: This article may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it.
The trial surrounding Gisèle Pélicot — the French woman whose husband is accused of inviting more than 50 men to secretly rape her while she was drugged unconscious — has horrified the public, making headlines around the world.
But the case isn't significant only because of the nature of the crimes, which her husband filmed and has confessed to, but because we know Gisèle Pélicot's name at all.
The media doesn't typically identify survivors of sexual abuse. Usually, publication bans prevent the media from doing so in order to protect the privacy of survivors and encourage them to report the crimes in the first place. But Pélicot, now aged 72, waived her legal right to anonymity.
She said she wanted the trial to be held publicly to alert the public to sexual abuse and drug-induced blackouts.
"So when other women, if they wake up with no memory, they might remember the testimony of Ms. Pélicot," she told the court in the southern French city of Avignon on Thursday, according to the New York Times. "No woman should suffer from being drugged and victimized."
Lawyer Stephane Babonneau, who represents Pélicot, told French media she wanted to show "that shame must change sides."
The case is "horrifying," but choosing to speak out publicly sends a powerful message, said Bailey Reid, CEO of the Ottawa-based sexual violence prevention program The Spark Strategy.
"That she chose to be public with it shows an important value that women should not be ashamed when they're sexually assaulted. It's never their fault, and they shouldn't feel that it is," Reid told CBC News.
"It's actually quite different than a lot of the victim-blaming and shaming that we see in a lot of media, and sexual violence tropes in television and movies."
Dominique Pélicot, now 71, and 50 other men are standing trial on charges of aggravated rape and face up to 20 years in prison. The trial started Sept. 2 and is expected to run until December.
Beatrice Zavarro, a lawyer for Dominique Pélicot, has told French media that he admits to his crimes.
News website Vox reports that a psychologist told the court that Dominique Pélicot's reasoning for the assaults is that his wife rejected swinging. He was supposed to testify Tuesday, but was instead hospitalized for medical checks and treatments for a possible bladder infection, his lawyer told reporters.
Last Thursday, Gisèle Pélicot said she pushed for the trial in open court in solidarity with other women who go unrecognized as victims of sexual crimes.
Finland says it has found more than two dozen serious deficiencies aboard the impounded Eagle S, a ship that was carrying Russian oil and is accused of deliberately dragging its anchor in the Baltic Sea on Dec. 25, damaging an underwater power line and four telecommunication cables.
As if having the ear of incoming U.S. president Donald Trump weren't enough, tech billionaire Elon Musk has been on a tear this week, trashing European politicians on both the left and right, and using posts on his social media platform, X, to disrupt politics across the continent.
A wildfire whipped up by extreme winds swept through a Los Angeles hillside dotted with celebrity residences Tuesday, burning homes and prompting evacuation orders for tens of thousands. In the frantic haste to get to safety, roadways were clogged and scores of people abandoned their vehicles and fled on foot, some toting suitcases.
A strong earthquake killed at least 95 people in Tibet on Tuesday and left many others trapped as dozens of aftershocks shook the high-altitude region of western China and across the border in Nepal.
For two centuries, the certification of U.S. presidential election results was little more than a ceremonial rubber stamp by Congress.
Gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Israelis in the occupied West Bank on Monday, killing at least three people and wounding seven others.
FBI officials on Sunday said their investigation into the deadly truck attack in New Orleans is now "crossing state and international borders" and that the attacker had travelled to both Egypt and Canada.
Jimmy Carter 's extended public farewell began Saturday in Georgia, with the 39th U.S. president's flag-draped casket tracing his long arc from the Depression-era South and family farming business to the pinnacle of American political power and decades as a global humanitarian.
A judge Friday set U.S. president-elect Donald Trump's sentencing in his hush money case for Jan. 10 — a little over a week before he's due to return to the White House — but indicated he wouldn't be jailed.
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump is "strong and unpredictable," and those qualities can be a decisive factor in his policy approach to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The highly decorated army soldier inside the Tesla Cybertruck that burst into flames outside U.S. president-elect Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel shot himself in the head before the explosion, officials said Thursday.
An 18-year-old girl dreaming of becoming a nurse, a father of two and a former Princeton football star were among those killed in New Orleans when the driver of a white pickup truck sped down Bourbon Street, packed with holiday revellers early Wednesday morning.
Ten people were killed and 30 injured after the driver of a vehicle struck a crowd on New Orleans historic Bourbon Street early Wednesday, according to NOLA Ready, the city's emergency preparedness agency.
Donald Trump's threat of whopping tariffs on Canadian exports and his trolling of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are key tactics in a negotiating strategy to extract the best trade terms for the U.S., according to people who have worked with or closely observed him over the years.