51 people, including her ex-husband Dominique Pellicote, convicted of raping Gisele, have been sentenced in France. Dominic used to give his wife sleeping pills and drugs and get her raped by unknown men. He had also taken obscene photographs of his daughter and pregnant daughter-in-law. h
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What is the whole matter, why did Dominic get his own wife raped, why was it not revealed for 10 years in developed countries like France; Will know in today’s explainer…
Question 1: How was the mass rape of Jijel Pellicote by her husband and unknown people revealed? Answer: 70-year-old Dominique Pelliquot lived with his wife Giselle in Mazan, a small town in southern France. He is a retired employee from a power company and his wife Jijel was a manager in a multinational company. Both of them got married in 1973 and have 3 children.
Even on 12 September 2020, Dominic was making obscene videos of women in a supermarket in Mazan. Then the guard present there caught him and handed him over to the police. When the police investigated his mobile, they found obscene videos of many women. After this the police raided Dominic’s house for investigation. Police seized two phones, a camera, a video recorder and laptop from Dominic’s house.
During investigation, police found more than 20 thousand obscene videos and photos from his computer. This data was present in Dominic’s computer in folders named ‘Abused’, ‘Her Rapist’ and ‘Night Alone’. On November 2, 2020, the police called Jijel to the police station and showed her videos and photos found from her husband’s laptop. Jijel also had videos in this data. Jijel was raped by 72 men while intoxicated.
Sketch of Dominique Pellicote in police custody.
Question 2: What came to light in the investigation and trial, which shocked the world? Answer: Dominic was arrested for the first time in 2010. He was caught filming under the skirts of women in a shopping mall in Paris. He was making a video by installing a hidden camera in a pen. Dominic was arrested and fined 100 euros.
From 2011, Dominic started giving drugs to his wife Giselle. He started mixing drugs in Jijel’s food and drinks. During this time, Jijel realized that she kept sleeping the whole day without any reason. He doesn’t even remember what happened to him the previous evening. Jijel thought she was suffering from Alzheimer’s and cervical diseases.
After getting Giselle addicted to drugs, Dominic started inviting people living around his house to play sex games. Dominic told people,
In this game, they will have sex with Jijel and Jijel also has her consent in this.
Dominic also gave several instructions for caution. He used to make the accused wash their hands with hot water before touching Jijel so that Jijel would not wake up if touched with cold hands. Cigarettes, perfume or any other intoxicant was prohibited in the room.
The police also found a pendrive from Dominic’s garage during the investigation. In this he used to collect data of all obscene videos and photos. Indecent photographs of his daughter Caroline, daughter-in-law Aurore and Celine were also found in Dominic’s possession. After this, Jijel divorced Dominic in 2020.
Jijel demanded a public hearing of her case, which would change people’s perspective on such cases.
Question 3: Why did Giselle’s husband Dominic get his wife raped by strangers? Answer: According to Dominic’s psychology expert Dr. Laurent Leyte, Dominic was not mentally ill. He is a victim of split personality. There are two types of people in Dominic’s mind. One who used to make obscene videos of women. Got his wife raped by 72 different men and got a video made. Who took photos of his pregnant daughter-in-law while she was bathing.
Whereas, his other personality is that of a family man. Dominic’s second personality was that of a family man. Dominique loved cycling in the French countryside. He used to take his son and grandson to watch football matches. Dominic’s elder son David said,
My parents used to organize surprise birthday parties for us. All our friends used to attend this party. My friends looked at my father as a role model. My father used to dance with my friends and eat together. Today my friends cannot believe that my father became the worst rapist in the history of France.
Question 4: Who are the men accused of mass rape of Jijel? Answer: Apart from Dominic, 50 other men became accused in the mass rape of Jijel. The court of Avignon found 47 people guilty of rape. Two people were found guilty of attempt to rape and two of sexual assault.
The 50 other people who raped included people from different professions like firemen, truck drivers, bank employees, builders, laborers and journalists. Most of these accused live in villages and towns within a range of 50 kilometers of Mazan. He raped Jijel between 2013 and 2020. During this period, the age of these accused was between 23 years to 73 years.
Adrian Longeron was the first accused of raping Jijel based on the video footage. Adrian raped Jijel in 2014. At this time his age was only 24 years and Jijel was 62 years. Apart from this, 63 year old Roman V is also among the accused. Despite being HIV positive, Romain had sex with Gisele 6 times without protection.
Apart from this, Christian Lescol, father of two daughters, also raped Jijel. 43-year-old builder Husamettin Dogan is also involved in the rape. At the same time, 40-year-old Redouane Ajugagh raped Jijel. Redouane has two wives, with whom he also has 4 children. Redouane has also been accused of domestic violence.
Police taking the accused to court for hearing.
Question 5: How did the convicts reach the punishment and how much punishment did they receive? Answer: On November 9, 2021, the first arrest of the accused was made on the basis of evidence obtained from Dominic’s phone calls, Skype, WhatsApp. With this, the police started searching for the people seen in the footage. After this 50 accused were arrested. The remaining 21 accused were not identified.
On September 2, 2024, the trial of 51 accused, including Dominic, began in the court of Avignon, France. During the hearing, some of the accused looked fearless but most of them had their eyes lowered while answering the judges’ questions. Christian L clarified that my body was being raped, but not my mind.
According to BBC report, 54-year-old Ahmed said that if he wanted to rape someone, he would not have chosen a woman above 60 years of age. Apart from this, some said that Dominic had threatened them to do so. Dominic denied all these things and said that he had already told that his wife was unaware of this.
Sketch during a hearing in the courtroom.
While presenting his side in the court, Jijel said that it is not that someone with a gun has made the accused do this. He raped me of his own free will. He took this decision after careful consideration. Gizel said,
If it was not so, then why did none of them go to the police even after having sex? If someone had made even a call to the police, my life could have been saved. But not one of them did so.
The court also based the video evidence in the case and accepted that Jijel was not conscious when she was raped. The court sentenced Dominic to 20 years in the case. Apart from this, 50 accused who raped Jijel were found guilty and sentenced to 3 to 18 years.
Romain V was sentenced to 18 years, Jean-Pierre Marchel to 12 years, Charlie Arbo to 13 years, Christian Lesko to 9 years and Lionel Rodriguez to 8 years. The accused have until December 29 to appeal against their sentences.
Jijel Pellicote with her family after the court’s verdict on 19 December.
Question 6: How did Giselle become an example, why is her scarf in discussion? Answer: According to Al Jazeera’s report, Giselle Pellicote said that she believed that she was in a perfect marriage relationship. But what Dominic did to her left her devastated. He abolished the right of ‘anonymity’ in the trial to ensure conviction of all the accused. She revealed her identity during the case because she wanted to be an example for women.
Jijel also convinced the judge to release the video recording of the rape to the public and the media. His lawyers called the decision a victory after Jijel’s video became public, saying,
If this trial, through its publicity, can prevent other women from being raped, then Jijel will get real justice.
On the day of the court’s decision on 19 December, Giselle Pellicoat arrived wearing a scarf around her neck. This scarf was gifted to her by the Older Women Network Organization of Australia. Jijel received this gift for her bravery. Gisele wore this scarf during all the hearings. The organization told Jijel, ‘Look, you are not alone. Women all over the world are supporting you.
On December 19, Jijel reached the courtroom wearing a scarf around her neck.
Question 7: How did this case shock even a developed country like France, is there any impact in India also? Answer: According to the European Institute for Gender Equality, about 44% of women in France are victims of violence. This figure is 4 times the EU average figure of 11%. In France, a woman dies every three days due to violence by her husband or boyfriend.
On September 14, 2024, women’s rights groups took out rallies in about 30 cities of France in support of Jijel. In these rallies, the placards of many women had written ‘We trust survivors.’ A woman attending the rally said,
I am here to support Jijel and other women, because there are many more Jijels around us.
In this case, Jijel was not only mass raped but also mentally exploited. At the age of 62, she was raped by a 24-year-old boy. HIV positive man raped and video of rape of all 72 men was also made. Many of these people had raped Jijel more than once.
Jijel’s case does not rely solely on sexual violence statistics. It also changes social treatment of victims after sexual violence. Usually, after such violence, the victim is shamed. This is a common thing in India, but after this there is a possibility of change in attitude. Wrong is expected to be called wrong. So that victimized women can get justice and crime against women can be reduced.
Research cooperation- Ayush Aggarwal
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