As usual at the court in Avignon, France, Gisele Perico arrived on Wednesday to the cheers of a crowd of mostly female supporters.
“I have expressed neither anger nor shame,” she told the court, taking the stand again in a trial that has captivated France and sparked deep debate over sexual assault and the definition of rape in criminal law. “I am expressing my desire to change society.”
For weeks, she remained silent as defendant after defendant spoke before the judge. About 51 men are on trial, most of them charged with aggravated rape of Ms. Pericot, a 71-year-old grandmother. Prosecutors allege Pericotte was repeatedly drugged by her husband of 50 years and then forced into prison by men. She said she was unconscious during the rape and was drugged repeatedly, resulting in memory loss and loss of hair and weight.
Perricotte said in court Wednesday that she felt violated again after hearing testimony from the past few weeks. But she said she feels she has a higher purpose. “I want rape victims to say to themselves, ‘If Mr. Pericot did it, we can do it too.'” I don’t want them to feel shame; they should feel shame. They are the victims,” he said of the defendants.
Her ex-husband, Dominic Perico, told a court in September that he began drugging his wife so he could have sex with her in ways she would not consent to when she was conscious. He then met other men on the website and invited them to join. Perricot had been doing this for almost a decade before being arrested in September 2020 for filming upskirts of women shopping at a grocery store.
Police seized electronic devices, including a laptop, before making bail. They discovered a trove of photos and videos of Pericot being sexually assaulted. During the investigation, police identified more than 80 suspects, but were only able to track down and prosecute 50 of them.
Perricotte has pleaded guilty along with more than a dozen others. Since the trial began in September, the court has heard the cases of six to seven men each week. The defendants represent a sample of small-town, middle-class, and working-class French society: truck drivers, tradesmen, soldiers, nurses, journalists, and IT specialists. Their ages range from 26 to 74. Most live near Mazan, the town where Pericotte and her husband retired in 2013.
So far, 30 people, including Perricotte, have spoken before the court’s five-judge panel. Most of them have admitted to going to Pericotte’s house and having sex with her, but deny rape, saying they did not know she was drugged.
They claimed that Mr. Pericotte was portrayed as an impressionable and manipulative person, that he presented the encounter as a sexual game and that Mr. Pericotte deceived them by pretending to be asleep. Others believe Perricotte may have drugged them as well, since they claim they have no recollection of the encounter.
“He said it was a scenario because she was shy. I didn’t doubt him, it seemed like an agreed upon scenario given their age and everything.” said Mahdi Daudi, 36, one of the defendants who took the stand last week.
“I wasn’t asking myself the right questions at the time, but I thought there was no way drugs were involved,” he added.
Ahmed Tubalik, 55, told the court he arrived at the couple’s home expecting to find Pericot awake and Trois’ meal ready. “Like many people, I’ve watched porn, and sometimes women pretend to be asleep,” Tubalik said, adding: I know what rape is, but I’m not a rapist. ”
In the video, Mr Perricotte and other men can be seen performing sex acts on what appears to be a lifeless Mr Perricotte as he lies with his mouth ajar in a brightly lit room. The men were careful not to make any noise, and reacted twitchingly to her slight movements. Sometimes I can hear her snoring loudly.
“For six minutes you’ve been penetrating her. I can hear her snoring and I can see you putting the sheet back over her body as it falls. And yet you’re penetrating her. Are you telling me you didn’t rape me?” Perico’s lawyer Stéphane Babonneau asked one of the defendants, Cyril Bauvis, in court last week.
“I don’t know what to say,” he answered.
Pericot fought to have the case open to the public and the video released in court as incontrovertible evidence. Her lawyer argued that watching them was “looking straight at rape.”
But when the video plays on the courthouse’s three screens, Perricotte doesn’t watch it. Instead, she sits against the courtroom wall behind the two lawyers and looks down. Throughout the trial, she showed little expression as the sexual acts she had undergone were described in clear detail.
Pericotte, who divorced just as the trial began, said he made it clear to all the men that he had drugged his wife without her knowledge and that he had invited her to have sex with her unconscious wife.
“It’s hard for him to say, but just as I am a rapist, so is he,” he said last week of one of the defendants.
Every day, dozens of people watch the trial and line up to support Ms. Pericot, who has unwittingly become a feminist icon in France. They applaud as she enters and exits the courthouse. Sometimes they bring her flowers. Mr. Pericot often approaches the crowd and expresses his gratitude. Last week, he was seen caressing the cheek of a woman who started crying when she saw him.
Last Friday, dozens of feminist organizations called for a “consolidated law” against sexual violence that includes more than 100 changes to current laws and a budget of more than 300 million euros (nearly $324 million). The law’s main proposals include providing free medical treatment to victims, banning minors from accessing pornographic content, and eliminating the statute of limitations for incest.
Demonstrations in support of victims of sexual violence were organized in front of more than 20 courthouses across France on Saturday. Quoting Perico’s lawyer, hundreds of women in Lyon, Marseille and Paris held up posters saying, “It’s a shame to turn over.”
“We are all Gisele. Are you all Dominique?” another sign read.
Late last week, the presiding judge questioned Mr. Pericot again.
“How can you live with this woman who you say you love more than anything? She was prepared, offered, and then woke up in your house and continued to live together.” He asked.
“I have a dark side,” Mr. Pericot began hesitantly. “No one is anyone’s business, in fact, I know that now, but I’ve always been adamant about doing what I want, when I want to do it,” he replied. “The next morning was difficult because we could see that her condition was not good.”
