ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
A landmark trial began in France this week. And a warning - this is a story about rape and sexual assault. A woman has waived her right to anonymity to publicly accuse her now ex-husband of drugging her so she could be raped by dozens of strangers while she was unconscious. NPR's Rebecca Rosman reports.
REBECCA ROSMAN, BYLINE: Speaking to a packed courtroom in the southern city of Avignon this week, 71-year-old Gisele Pelicot said that, for years, she suffered memory lapses. She even went to a doctor, thinking she was experiencing early signs of Alzheimer's. Then in 2020, she got a call from the police, who had been investigating her husband after he was caught taking photos up women's skirts in a local supermarket. For nearly a decade, he secretly drugged her by crushing sleeping pills into her food and drink, then inviting dozens of men into their home to rape her while she was unconscious. Now 50 of those men and her ex-husband are on trial. They include nurses, a local journalist, a firefighter, a civil servant and even a former neighbor. Her husband filmed it all.
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CAROLINE DARIAN: (Speaking French).
ROSMAN: Speaking on French television, Pelicot's adult daughter, a writer who goes by the pen name Caroline Darian, said it was the profiles of these men that was the most shocking to her.
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DARIAN: (Speaking French).
ROSMAN: They're just ordinary people, she said. When you see their profiles, it's chilling because they have children. Most of them are in a relationship. It's surreal. Ms. Pelicot faced those men and her ex-husband for the first time this week when she entered the courtroom to give her testimony.
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GISELE PELICOT: (Speaking French).
ROSMAN: I think I said everything I could, she told reporters shortly after, adding that it wasn't easy seeing the accused in front of her. French media has applauded Ms. Pelicot for her decision to waive her right to anonymity. She has said she wants to make the trial public to raise awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.
MANON CAILLIAS: (Speaking French).
ROSMAN: The case has certainly gotten people talking, like here at this outdoor cafe in central Paris, where I sit down with three young women having an apero. One of them is 24-year-old Manon Caillias. She says that while the gravity of the case is shocking, there's something about it that all women can relate to.
CAILLIAS: (Speaking French).
ROSMAN: I think we can all identify at least a little with the relationship she had with her husband, she says, a relationship where you feel used and taken advantage of by a man who has a certain kind of power over you. The trial continues through December.
Rebecca Rosman, NPR News, Paris. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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