Queen Camilla Lauds Gisèle Pelicot's 'Extraordinary Dignity, Courage'

Britain's Queen Camilla reportedly sent a letter to Gisèle Pelicot, the French u who was reportedly drugged and raped by her ex-husband and over 50 other men. The perpetrators were found guilty and jailed for 20 years by a court in Avignon, southern France. Buckingham Palace said that the Queen was said to be "tremendously affected" by Gisèle Pelicot's ordeal and wanted to recognise her "extraordinary dignity and courage."

Although the palace declined to comment on the contents of the letter, a royal aide told Newsweek despite Pelicot's "personal suffering" she had helped "highlight a very significant societal problem". Queen Camilla has been a long-standing campaigner on domestic and sexual violence. She has vowed to campaign for victims of domestic violence throughout her lifetime, and worked with a number of charities and refuges, and supported campaigns through royal visits over a number of years.

Gisele Pelicot Trial: A Timeline

Gisèle's husband, Dominique Pelicot, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after he was found guilty of all charges by a judge in southern France and cried in court as he was sentenced to the maximum term. Of the 50 co-defendants, aged between 26 to 75,  46 were found guilty of rape, two guilty of attempted rape, and two guilty of sexual assault.

In an epitome of courage and fearlessness, Gisèle Pelicot chose to waive her right to anonymity, becoming an example for survivors of abuse. She "never regretted" the decision to make the trial public "so society could see what was happening". She wanted to set an example for other women going through something similar, to find solace and courage in Pelicot's story. She said she had "confidence in our capacity collectively to find a better future where women and men alike can live together with mutual respect."

Gisèle Pelicot is a pensioner and retired as a manager from a public company. She lived with her former husband in the southern French town of Mazan, according to the New York Times. According to Reuters, her then-husband drugged her by putting powerful tranquilisers into her food and coffee, leaving her comatose and wondering whether she had Alzheimer’s because she couldn’t remember large parts of her day. Pelicot invited men to rape his wife via an online chatroom called A son insu. Gisèle has told the court she believes she may have been raped up to 200 times between 2011 and 2020 at her home and her daughter’s second home.

In September 2020, a security guard at the Leclerc supermarket in Carpentras stopped a man from filming under the skirts of four women and removed his phone. He encouraged the women who were supposedly middle-aged to report this incident to the police. When the matter reached the police, 300 photos and films of the abuse of his wife were found. Police found a total of 20,000 videos and photos on phones and hard drives at the couple’s rented home in Mazan where they had lived for more than a decade after retiring. 

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Daughter Also Feared Being Abused By Father

The couple has three children, David, Caroline and Florian. Caroline Peyronnet, believes she was also drugged and abused by her father after photos of her asleep were found in files in his computer. Among the files on Dominique's folder, there were two pictures of a younger woman. When the officer asked if she had a brown mole on her right cheek like the woman in the pictures, the doubt deepened. After the verdict, in a statement to AFP news agency, the Pelicot children frowned as they were "disappointed" by the "low sentences". 

Dominique's Method "Inspired" Other Men

One of the convicted men was not convicted for raping Gisele. Jean-Pierre Marechal, who admitted to following Pelicot’s actions by drugging his own wife for five years and inviting Pelicot to rape her, was sentenced to 12 years. The court described him as a 'disciple' of Dominique Pelicot. Pelicot admitted raping Maréchal’s wife on several occasions and said he regretted his actions. He said he cut contact with the couple after Maréchal’s wife woke up during one of the assaults while he was in her bedroom.

Frontline explains this with the link between narcissism and rape seems to be especially strong when repeat offenders are concerned. One of the key characteristics is a tendency to dehumanise others, which is a similarity found in the case of both rapists and narcissists. 

The Rapists And Their "Reasons"

The rapists of Gisèle were defended by their lawyer as "Ordinary People". These were individuals living in the 50 km radius of Mazan, her residence. Aged 26 to 72, their professions included soldiers, DJ, journalist, truck driver, etc. One of the accused, John Kawai, 26, was absent for the premature birth of his daughter on the night he was accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot for the first time in November 2019.

One of the few rapists Gisele was able to recognise, was 43-year-old Mekenese. “I saw him now and then in the bakery; I would say hello. I never thought he’d come and rape me,” she said. Another convicted, Patrick Aron, shared that Pelicot told him Gisèle was a “prudish bitch who didn’t want threesomes” and said: “I’m looking for a pervert accomplice to abuse my wife, she takes sleeping pills and I take advantage.” Another convicted told the court that he was told by Dominique that he was looking for a man as a “gift” for his wife “for Valentine’s Day”. A convicted tried to defend himself, "Why would I rape a woman aged over 60?"

Gisèle's attorney shed some light on the impact of the rancorous events of the last fifteen years on Gisele and the tag of a trailblazer she has received from the general public. Pelicot has been clear that behind her facade of strength "lies a field of ruins" and despite the widespread acclaim for what she has done, she is a reluctant hero.