The family of multiple rape victim Gisèle Pélicot is said to have been “torn apart” by the criminal trial that ended with her husband being sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Ms Pélicot, 72, appeared to have the support of her three adult children when the case against Dominique Pélicot, also 72, first came to court in Avignon, in the south of France. The Frenchman was accused of drugging his wife for nearly 10 years, and then allowing other men he met online to sexually assault her.
51 men in total were convicted in December 2024, with a further 20 assailants yet to be identified. Mr Pélicot was convicted of aggravated rape. However, by the time the guilty verdicts were delivered, a deep rift had divided the family.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, Ms Pélicot’s lawyer, Stéphane Babonneau said: “When sexual assault happens within families, it tears the family apart, and that’s what happened here. It’s very sad, that’s why sexual assault has such impact even over generations.”
Mr Babonneau would not comment on specific details of the feud, but they are believed to be linked to the family’s only daughter, Caroline Darian, 46. She has claimed she too was drugged and attacked by her father, but no evidence has been found to back this up, reports the Mirror.
Ms Darian has expressed anger that her mother has not supported her with her own accusations against her father. She has since written a book about her ordeal, in which she wrote: “Because of my father, I am now losing my mother.”
She had originally organised a family party at the end of last year, but this was cancelled in light of the trial. Mr Babonneau would not even confirm whether the family spent Christmas and New Year together.
The lawyer said: “They are all genuine people trying to cope, and when Gisèle spoke after the verdict her first words were for her family.”
According to Mr Babonneau, Gisèle Pélicot is now living in an undisclosed location in France, having moved out of the family home in Mazan, near Avignon, where the rapes took place, and no longer uses her married name.
He said Ms Pélicot was “trying to remain normal, and the way to do that is to return to normal life.” He added: “She also has to adjust to the fact she can’t go to the supermarket without being recognised — and she’s not an actor or celeb, it’s just because she participated in a trial.
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Of the 51 men convicted, 17 have tried to appeal, with at least another 20 assailants who have failed to be identified. They appeared in footage of the rapes taken by Dominique Pélicot, which he stored on his personal devices, and eventually became part of the prosecution’s evidence against him.
Mr Pélicot is also facing accusations that he sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl at a house in Paris in 1995. An investigation was launched after the woman, now 42, reported the incident to police in the city after claiming she recognised her attacker from the publicity of the Pélicot trial.
However, his defence lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, said: “he absolutely denies this new accusation. He is absolutely stunned by it.”
Pélicot is also being investigated for two unsolved cases in the greater Paris region – an attempted rape in 1999, which he confessed to, and an attempted rape and murder in 1991, which he denies.
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