Gisele Pericot, a French woman on trial for drugging and raping her ex-husband and seducing dozens of other men, has appeared in court for the first time.
Gisele told the Avignon courtroom that she wanted women who have been raped to know that “the shame is not for us, but for them.”
“I want all the women who have been raped to say, ‘Madame Pericotte did it, I can do it too.’ I don’t want them to be shamed any further.” He mentioned his own requests. The rape charge is made public.
Gisele, 72, took the stand at the request of her defense team to give her an opportunity to respond to evidence and testimony shared so far in court.
She said that over the past few weeks, she has witnessed various wives, mothers and sisters of the defendant take the stand and describe him as an “exceptional person.”
“It’s exactly the same person I was when I was at home,” she added. “But rapists don’t just meet you in dark parking lots late at night; they can be among your family and friends.”
She said she was “completely destroyed" and had to get back on her feet. “I don’t know if it will take me the rest of my life to understand,” she added.
Gisele called her ex-husband “Mr. Perico” and said, “I wish I still called him Dominique. We lived together for 50 years. I was a happy and fulfilled woman.”
“You were a caring and attentive husband. I never doubted you. We laughed and shared tears,” she added, her voice breaking.
Dominic admitted to recruiting men online to rape his wife while secretly giving her large doses of sedatives and sleeping pills for 10 years.
Gisele said she considered herself lucky to have him by her side when she was struggling with health issues. It was later determined that the problem was related to the medication he was giving her.
“I’m trying to understand how this man who was perfect for me did this. How could he betray me at this point? How could he let these strangers into my bedroom? Is that so?”
“I would say this to him: I have always tried to lift you higher, towards the light. You chose the darkest depths of humanity. You made this choice.”
Gisele said Dominique often cooked meals for her and brought her ice cream after dinner, and later said Dominique used this method to administer drugs to her. You really take care of me. ”
She added that she never felt dizzy or heart palpitations and must have passed out quickly when she was given the drug. The next morning, she woke up in her bed feeling particularly tired, which she believed was due to her long walk.
“I have gynecological issues and sometimes I would wake up in the morning feeling as if my water had broken. The signs were there, but I didn’t know how to decipher them. “I did,” she added.
Gisele and her lawyer also believe that Dominique suffers from an inferiority complex due to an affair with a colleague, a difference in social status with him, or the fact that she had a loving childhood and he did not. We also discussed whether there might have been.
Returning to the resonance the trial had, she said: “I’ve been told I’m brave. It’s not about being brave, it’s about having the will and determination to change society.”
“Courage is jumping into the sea to help someone. I just have the will and determination.”
“This is why I come here every day…Even when I hear things that are unspeakable, I endure because of all the men and women right behind me.”
She said she has never regretted asking for the trial to be made public: “I did it because what happened to me should never happen again.”
Most of the alleged rapes were filmed.
Most of the defendants deny raping Gisele, arguing that they could not be found guilty because they did not realize she was unconscious and therefore did not know they were raping her.
