Video evidence in France mass rape trial shown publicly

A court trying a Frenchman accused of drugging his wife and recruiting dozens of strangers to rape her showed videos of the abuse to the public on Friday in a challenge to several co-defendants who denied to have known that she was unconscious during her actions.

The judge in the southern city of Avignon had nine videos and several photos of the abuse of Gisele Pelicot shown in the courtroom and an adjacent public hall, involving seven of the 50 defendants along with her husband.

Gisele Pelicot, herself present in the courtroom, looked at her phone during the hour and a half of demonstrations as her ex-husband covered his eyes in the dock and several of his co-defendants watched themselves on the screen or stared at the floor.

Gisele Pelicot insisted that the trial be public to raise awareness of drug use in sexual abuse and called for restrictions on showing the images to be lifted.

Judge Roger Arata overturned an earlier decision to hold the screenings behind closed doors and accepted her lawyers' request that the public be present when the pictures were shown.

They were investigated to challenge the statements of some defendants who claimed that they did not know that the victim was unconscious.

However, after the images were shown on Friday, most stood by their defence.

They had previously said they thought they were taking part in a sex game.

After the screenings, one said he had “no memory” of the event. Another said he was “terrorized” by Dominique Pelicot, even though it “doesn’t look like it” from the pictures.

A third said he didn't hear Gisele Pelicot snoring or “hoped she'd wake up at the end.”

– “Finding meaning in suffering” –

Dominique Pelicot filmed much of the abuse against his wife and also carefully recorded the strangers who visited their home, which subsequently helped the police uncover the crimes.

He has admitted to drugging his wife and inviting men to rape her between 2011 and 2020.

Arata ruled that the review of video evidence “would not be systematic” and would only occur when “strictly necessary to uncover the truth” and at the request of one of the parties.

Gisele Pelicot's lawyer Stephane Babonneau said the verdict was a “victory” but “a victory in a battle that should not have been fought.”

Gisele Pelicot's willingness to highlight her suffering has won widespread recognition and made her a feminist icon in France.

“It’s too late for Gisele Pelicot. The damage is done,” Babonneau said.

“But if these same hearings, by making them public, help prevent other women from having to go through something like this, then she will find meaning in her suffering.”

– Accidental Rape Argument –

The trial is currently hearing testimony from the men accused of responding to Dominique Pelicot's demands and raping Gisele Pelicot.

Forty-nine other men are accused of raping or attempting to rape Gisele Pelicot. Another admitted to sedating his own wife so that he and Dominique Pelicot could sexually abuse her.

Some attorneys for the other 50 defendants declined to review video evidence.

“Justice doesn’t need this to proceed. “What is the point of these disgusting demonstrations?” said lawyer Olivier Lantelme.

But for Antoine Camus, another lawyer on Gisele Pelicot's team, the videos serve to “derail the accidental rape argument.”

“It was really a question of hatred of women,” he said.

Each defendant contributed “in their own little way to this banality of rape, to this banality of evil,” he said.

Beatrice Zavarro, Dominique Pelicot's lawyer who previously supported the screening of the videos, did not comment on the matter on Friday.

The trial is expected to last until December.

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