Gisele Pericot, whose ex-husband and dozens of other men are on trial for rape, has spoken for the second time in a French court, saying she is “devastated” by the ordeal but that she He said he was “determined” to: Please support other women.
Perricotte spoke Wednesday at the invitation of Chief Justice Roger Arata, encouraging other women who have been sexually assaulted to come forward.
“I wanted to say to all the women who have been rape victims, ‘Mrs. Perricot did it, so can we,'” she said. “They (the perpetrators) should feel shame, not us,” she said of her request for the trial to be made public from the beginning.
The 71-year-old has become a feminist symbol in France since the trial of Dominique Pericot and 50 other men began last month in the southern French city of Avignon.
The incident sparked fear, protests and a debate about male violence in French society.
“I’m a completely broken woman,” Gisele Perico told the court, adding: “I want to change society” in how it deals with sexual assault.
“I don’t know how to rebuild myself,” she says. “I’m almost 72 years old and I don’t know if my life will last long enough to recover from this situation.”
This unprecedented trial reveals how pornography, chat rooms and men’s disdain and ambivalence about consent fuel France’s rape culture.
Dominic Perrico filmed much of the abuse he committed against his wife and also meticulously recorded the visits of strangers to his home, which later helped police solve the crime.
He admitted to drugging his then-wife and inviting men to rape her between 2011 and 2020.
“Unfathomable” betrayal
Gisele Pericot on Wednesday spoke for the first time since the beginning of the trial about her husband’s “incalculable” betrayal and expressed sympathy for the wives, mothers and sisters of his 50 co-defendants, according to French media.
“I’m trying to understand why my husband, who was a perfect person, turned out the way he did. How my life has changed,” she said. “For me, this betrayal is unfathomable. After 50 years together, I thought I would be with this person to the end.”
Ahmed T. was among nearly 20 defendants who testified during the first seven weeks of the trial (French defendants’ full names are usually not made public until after they are found guilty). The man, a married plumber with three children and five grandchildren, said that when he visited his girlfriend and now ex-husband’s home in the small Provence town of Mazan in 2019, he noticed that the pericot wasn’t working. He said he wasn’t particularly worried.
He said it reminded him of porn he had watched featuring women “pretending to be asleep and unresponsive.”
Like him, many other defendants were told in court that they could not imagine that Dominic Perico was drugging his wife and that she was an active participant in acting out his perverted fantasies. said. Dominic Perico denied this, telling the court that his co-defendants knew exactly what was going on.
If convicted, most suspects could face up to 20 years in prison for aggravated rape.
The trial is scheduled to last four months until December 20th.
Celine Piquez, a spokeswoman for the feminist organization Osez le Feminisme! (also known as Dare Feminism!), said many of the men on trial were inspired or perverted by pornography, including videos on popular websites. He said he was confident that he had done so.
Some sites have begun to crack down on search terms such as “unconscious,” but hundreds of videos can still be found online of men having sex with women who appear to be unconscious.
Last year, French authorities registered 114,000 victims of sexual violence, including more than 25,000 reported cases of rape. However, experts say most rape cases go unreported due to a lack of concrete evidence. Approximately 80 percent of women do not press charges, and 80 percent of those who do have their charges dropped before they are investigated.
