Dominique Pelicot, the ex-husband of Gisèle Pelicot, has pleaded guilty to charges of drugging and raping her for almost a decade and arranging for up to dozens of strangers he met online to abuse her unconscious body. His trial, along with that of 50 other men, most charged with aggravated rape, began in Avignon in September. A verdict is expected on Thursday.
Despite Mr. Pelicot’s guilty plea, under the French legal system a trial is held for society to understand the truth of what happened, experts say.
Here is a timeline of events in the case, based on court records and testimony.
1973
The Pelicots marry, two years after meeting. “We were so in love, we didn’t want to be apart,” Ms. Pelicot told the court at the trial.
1974
The first of their three children is born. They settle on the outskirts of Paris, where Ms. Pelicot, now 72, is the family’s main breadwinner as a manager in a big public company, and Mr. Pelicot, also now 72, works at different jobs, including as a real estate agent.
2010
Mr. Pelicot is caught filming women under their skirts in a shopping mall near Paris, using a miniature camera concealed in a pen. He is arrested and fined 100 euros for “capturing indecent images.” Ms. Pelicot learned of the arrest only in 2020 from an investigative judge, in the lead-up to the current trial. “If I had been informed, maybe I would have left him, or not,” she told the court. “But I would have been more attentive.”
July 2011
Mr. Pelicot starts drugging his wife, he said in court. Ms. Pelicot told the court that she recalled she had a blackout on a Saturday in 2011 when she slept in until 6 p.m. Later, as the drugging became more regular, she said, she suffered frequent unexplained blackouts that she feared were the symptoms of Alzheimer’s or a brain tumor.
