France shocked by drugged rape case
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00:00Now, a gruesome court case continues in the city of Avignon in the south of France involving a man
00:06accused of orchestrating multiple rapes of his wife by strangers over the course of years.
00:11Dominique P has admitted to the charges, including drugging his wife. He was exposed
00:16by chance after being caught filming up women's skirts at a local supermarket.
00:21Today, his wife, known as Giselle P, is taking the stand and she has insisted that the trial
00:26take place in public so the truth comes out. For more on this story, we can bring in Solange
00:32Mougin. Solange, it's rare for a trial like this to be held in open court, isn't it?
00:37Yeah, it is and it's really a testament to the courage of the victim, Giselle PĂ©lico,
00:42and she and her lawyers specifically requested and fought for the trial to be open, for her name to
00:48be used, for journalists in the world to bear witness to what happened to her and her family.
00:53Now, in court on the stand today, she said she's doing this, quote, in the name of all the women
00:58who won't be recognized or perhaps won't be recognized as victims with an open trial. Her
01:04lawyers, well, they say that she wants to, quote, the shame to shift sides and it is indeed quite
01:10rare to stand up publicly with such stoicism in the face of such horrors that happened to her and
01:17her family. In this regard, she said today in the over one hour, one and a half hours of testimony,
01:24quote, my facade may seem strong but inside I am a field of ruins.
01:31Solange, what exactly is this trial about?
01:33Well, it's simply one horror after another. Giselle PĂ©lico's husband, Dominique PĂ©lico,
01:39is accused of drugging her with sleeping pills between 2011 and 2020 in addition
01:46to repeatedly raping her. While she was unconscious, he recruited strangers online
01:52to rape her as well. He admitted his guilt over the charges against him and in total,
01:57there are some 50 other men on trial for abusing and raping her. Now, 18 are in custody while 32
02:04others are free while awaiting the verdict. They are men of all walks of life and many have
02:10families, for example. Now, how the abuse came to light is also quite staggering as you just
02:15mentioned. In 2020, Dominique PĂ©lico was caught and accused by three women in a grocery store
02:22trying to film up their skirts. He was arrested and that's when police found on his electronic
02:28devices some 300 photographs and a video of an unconscious woman being assaulted by multiple men.
02:36Now, in total, police would find 4,000 videos and photos in a folder entitled Abus or Abuse.
02:43They also found evidence of how he would invite men to rape his wife on a chat forum called
02:49Assant Inçu or Without Her Knowledge. And indeed, on the stand today, Giselle Pélico described how
02:56her world simply fell apart on the 2nd of November 2020 when police officers, they showed her images
03:02of herself unconscious, being raped repeatedly. Quote, I was warm but my body was like a dead
03:08person, she said in her testimony. She also said that police saved her life by looking through
03:14that computer. Solange, this trial has of course rocked France but it's also garnered a lot of
03:20attention around the world. Has it raised awareness or attention about rape and the use of chemical
03:26substances? Well, I think Giselle PĂ©lico's decision to publicly come forward as well as her
03:33daughter's book and work in this regard, well, they've helped push to the forefront of people's
03:38minds the risks of chemical submission of rape in France but also worldwide. Now, in regard to
03:44France, the latest numbers that we have on chemical submission are from 2021. They are thought to be
03:50much smaller, these numbers are thought to be much smaller than the actual number of victims
03:57but three years ago, there were 721 official reports of chemical submission. Only 82 would
04:05be backed up by toxicology reports. Now, what's interesting here too is that while most of the
04:11drugs used, if you put them all together, they are often medicine like benzos or valiums, opioids,
04:18sleeping pills but there has also been a big jump of the use of recreational substances which you
04:23see there, the 44%. Most of the cases happen to women, men can also be victims of this as well.
04:31Advocates say that there are some key red flags to look out for, nausea, vertigo, amnesia,
04:36confusion, falling asleep suddenly. They say that if you have doubts, it's best to keep the
04:42possibly incriminating food or drink if you can but also to get your hair tested as traces remain
04:47longer in your hair. Now, beyond the risk of a chemical submission, this court case has also
04:52raised questions about whether doctors are trained well enough to spot such abuses as Giselle Perico
04:57spent years wondering about her gynecological problems and her absences. It's also raised
05:04questions about whether France's laws can better protect rape victims by adding or not, it's not
05:09it's a big debate that's going on in France, the word consent to the legal definition of rape.
05:15It's rare, we hear a lot of horrific stories as journalists, this story makes your jaw drop
05:22and not in a good way and this woman is so brave given all she went through for years,
05:26thank you very much for explaining the story in detail to us here Solange, thank you.