Latest news with #GisèlePelicot
New York Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
6 Months After the Pelicot Trial, a Staging Brings Insight and Despair
It was a case that shook France. Last December, the husband of Gisèle Pelicot was convicted of drugging and assaulting her for over a decade, and for inviting dozens of men to rape her while she was unconscious. Now, just six months later, the trial has already inspired a work of theater — in Vienna, as part of the city's prestigious Festwochen festival. On Wednesday, the Swiss director Milo Rau, who has led the event since 2023, and the French dramaturg Servane Dècle presented 'The Pelicot Trial,' a seven-hour reading of excerpts from the French legal proceedings and of interviews and commentary related to the case. It was a long night at the Church of St. Elisabeth, a red brick Roman Catholic church in a southern district of Vienna. The sun was setting when the audience went in at 9 p.m., filling the pews to capacity. When the final words were spoken, at around 4:15 a.m., sunrise was near, and only around 30 people remained. In a joint interview before the performance, Rau and Dècle said the wide range of material involved, with sections delving into history, philosophy and biology, was intended to dispel any notion that Pelicot's story was an isolated event. 'It's an example of patriarchal violence,' Rau said. 'The more we dive into it, the more we see that it's the tip of the iceberg.' Rau has a long history of bringing trials to the stage. In 'The Last Days of the Ceausescus,' Rau reenacted the 1989 legal proceedings against the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife. In 'The Congo Tribunal' and 'The Moscow Trials,' he created mock criminal courts to analyze real political events. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
LeMonde
11-06-2025
- LeMonde
Gisèle Pelicot reaches settlement with magazine over invasion of privacy
Gisèle Pelicot, a French feminist icon who survived nearly a decade of rapes by dozens of men, has reached a settlement with a magazine she accused of taking photos without her consent, her lawyer has said. Attorney Emilie Sudre said late on Tuesday, June 10, that "an amicable settlement" had been reached between Pelicot and glossy magazine Paris Match, instead of the case going to court on Wednesday. In April, Paris Match published seven pictures of Pelicot, walking in the streets of her new hometown, accompanied by a man it described as being her new partner. At the time, her lawyer Antoine Camus said it was "disappointing" that Paris Match would secretly take pictures of Pelicot "whose ordeal was the subject of 3,000 pictures and videos." He accused the magazine of "having learned nothing from the four-month trial" last year that saw her ex-husband and 50 other men convicted. Sudre said Pelicot had not requested any "compensation" as part of the settlement. Her client instead agreed that the magazine "pay €40,000 to two associations supporting victims of violence, including within families," especially children and women, she said. The two non-governmental organisations fund a women's shelter and a riding center that helps survivors recover, with the center being based in the southern town of Mazan, where much of the abuse Pelicot suffered took place. Christophe Bigot, a lawyer for Paris Match, said the magazine was "delighted with the solution, which would help victims of violence."
The Guardian
11-06-2025
- The Guardian
Gisèle Pelicot settles claim for invasion of privacy against French magazine
Gisèle Pelicot, who survived almost a decade of rape by dozens of men after she was drugged by her ex-husband, has settled an invasion of privacy case with the French magazine Paris Match. Pelicot, who became a feminist hero after she decided to waive her right to anonymity in the trial of her ex-husband and 50 other men last year, took legal action against Paris Match in April. The weekly magazine had published seven pictures of Pelicot accompanied by a man described as her companion walking in the streets in her new home town. At the time, Pelicot's lawyers said it was 'shocking' and 'disappointing' that Paris Match would secretly take pictures of Pelicot, who had been secretly filmed by her ex-husband during more than 200 rapes from 2011 to 2020. One of the lawyers, Antoine Camus, accused Paris Match of 'having learned nothing' from the four-month rape trial last year. Before a court hearing scheduled for Wednesday, lawyers for Pelicot and Paris Match confirmed that an agreement had been reached to settle the privacy case. At Pelicot's request, the magazine agreed to pay €40,000 to two charities that support victims of violence. The first, Isofaculté, is an equestrian centre based in Mazan, the village in the south of France where Pelicot lived at the time of the attacks on her. The equestrian centre supports vulnerable people, including women and children who are victims of violence. The second charity is WomenSafe & Children, a network of groups that support women and children survivors of violence and abuse. In a statement, lawyers said the case had been solved in a way that provides for 'the protection of other victims'. Pelicot, 73, a former logistics manager and grandmother of seven, had insisted that the rape trial in 2024 should be held in public to raise awareness of drug-induced abuse. 'It's not for us to have shame, it's for them,' she had said. Her ex-husband, Dominique Pelicot, one of the worst sex offenders in modern French history, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for drugging her and inviting dozens of men to rape her in her home in the south of France over a period of almost a decade of their marriage. A total of 50 other men were found guilty. The court heard that Dominique Pelicot, a retired electrician and former estate agent, had crushed sleeping tablets and anti-anxiety medication into his wife's mashed potato, coffee or ice-cream and invited dozens of men to rape her in the village of Mazan, Provence, where the couple had retired. Pelicot is to publish a memoir next year. She has said of the book: 'I now want to tell my story in my own words … to convey a message of strength and courage to all those who are subjected to difficult ordeals. May they never feel shame. And in time, may they even learn to savour life again and find peace.'
France 24
03-06-2025
- General
- France 24
Pelicot mass rape case: French court to hear appeal of only one convicted man
A French appeals court will hear the appeal from only one of the 51 men convicted over the mass rape of Gisèle Pelicot orchestrated by her now ex-husband Dominique Pelicot, a judicial source said on Tuesday. Dominique Pelicot was convicted in December 2024 of recruiting strangers over almost a decade to sexually abuse and rape the heavily drugged Gisèle Pelicot, in a case that made her a global feminist icon after she insisted that the trial be held in public. Fifty other men, the strangers who he recruited online to carry out the abuse alongside him, were also convicted in a trial that saw no acquittals. Dominique Pelicot did not appeal his term of 20 years jail for aggravated rape. But seventeen of the other defendants initially lodged an appeal. Sixteen of them have withdrawn their appeals over the last months, said a source close to the case, asking not to be named. The final three such moves to withdraw appeals were made on Tuesday. This means that the appeals trial that gets underway in the southern city of Nimes this autumn will only examine the case of Husamettin D., 44, sentenced to nine years in prison at the trial in December. He will only contest the length of his sentence for rape and not his guilt, the source told AFP. The appeals trial, initially scheduled for October 6 to November 21, should therefore be significantly shorter – if it even takes place. Husamettin D. has the right to withdraw his appeal right up until the opening of the hearing. Dominique Pelicot would likely be called as a witness at the appeals trial. He also faces possible further trials in separate cases after being charged over an attempted rape in 1999 and the rape followed by murder in 1991 in Paris of Sophie Narme, a 23-year-old real estate agent.
Irish Independent
31-05-2025
- Irish Independent
Gisele Pelicot's daughter says mother ‘would die' before acknowledging she was victim of rapist father too
Caroline Darian, the daughter of French serial rape victim Gisèle Pelicot, says she thinks her mother would 'die' if she acknowledged that her daughter was also a potential victim of Dominique Pelicot.
