French Woman Testifies in Court Against Ex-Husband Accused of Drugging and Sexual Assault

Ms Pelicot said Dominique often used to cook meals for her and bring her ice cream after dinner – which is the method he later said he used to drug her: “I used to say to him: how lucky am I, you’re a darling, you really look after me.”

She added that she was never lightheaded or felt her heart race, and that she must have passed out quickly when she was drugged. She would wake up in her own bed the next morning and feel particularly tired but said she believed it was because of taking long walks.

“I had gynaecological issues, and some mornings I woke up with the same feeling as if my waters had broken. The signs were there, but I never knew how to decode them,” she added.

Ms Pelicot and her lawyers also discussed whether Dominique might have been suffering from an inferiority complex due to an affair she had with a coworker, a perceived difference in social status between them or the fact that she had a loving childhood and he didn’t.

Returning to the reaction that the trial has sparked, she said: “I’ve been told I’m brave. This isn’t being brave, it’s having the will and determination to change society.”

“Bravery means jumping into the sea to rescue someone. I just have will and determination,” she said.

“This is why I come here every day… Even if I hear unspeakable things, I am holding on because of all the men and women who are right behind me.”

She said she has never regretted asking for the trial to be open: “I did it because what happened to me can never happen again.”

Most of the alleged rapes were filmed.

The majority of the defendants deny raping Ms Pelicot, and argue that they cannot be guilty because they did not realise she was unconscious and therefore did not “know” they were raping her.

Although she has been present in court most days, Ms Pelicot has only taken the stand twice.

The last time, on 18 September, she said she felt “humiliated” by suggestions she had agreed to take part in a sex game in which she pretended to be asleep when the men her husband recruited online came to their home.

“These men came to rape me. What I am hearing in this courtroom is so degrading, so humiliating,” she said.

The trial has attracted a huge amount of interest in France, where Ms Pelicot has become a feminist icon – not least for waiving her right to anonymity and requesting an open trial. Her legal team said opening up the trial would shift the “shame” back on to the accused.

Last Saturday, marches in support of Ms Pelicot were held in more than a dozen French cities. Several feminist organisations are also asking the French government to expand the law on rape to include a clause on consent.

The trial opened on 2 September. Despite lengthy daily hearings, it is only about halfway through due to the number of defendants that have to be questioned.

A verdict is expected in late December. (BBC News)