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Coventina

(28,057 posts)
Wed Sep 4, 2024, 11:32 AM Sep 2024

France Confronts Horror of Rape and Drugging Case as 51 Men Go on Trial

For years, she had been losing hair and weight. She had started forgetting whole days, and sometimes appeared to be in dreamlike trances. Her children and friends worried she had Alzheimer’s.

But in late 2020, after she was summoned to a police station in southern France, she learned a far more shattering story.

Her husband of 50 years, Dominique Pelicot, had been crushing sleeping pills into her food and drink to put her into a deep sleep, the police said, and then raping her. He had ushered dozens of men into her home to film them raping her, too, they said, in abuse that lasted nearly a decade.

Using the man’s photographs, videos and online messages, the police spent the next two years identifying and charging those other suspects.

On Monday, 51 men, including Mr. Pelicot, went on trial in Avignon, in a case that has shocked France and cast a spotlight on the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse and the broader culture in which such crimes could occur.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/02/world/europe/france-husband-rape-drug-trial-mazan.html?

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According to studies: 1/3 of men would commit rape if they knew they could get away with it.

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France Confronts Horror of Rape and Drugging Case as 51 Men Go on Trial (Original Post) Coventina Sep 2024 OP
Some of the men left when they saw she was completely unconscious, but not one went to the police. CrispyQ Sep 2024 #1
Cut Delphinus Sep 2024 #2
These creeps... PCIntern Sep 2024 #3
My grandmom and your mom may have worked together obamanut2012 Sep 2024 #11
Interesting. PM me sometime. PCIntern Sep 2024 #19
I will! obamanut2012 Sep 2024 #22
Many Repukes believe that it isn't rape if you are married RainCaster Sep 2024 #4
This isn't just the spouse. This is much much more than that. jimfields33 Sep 2024 #5
I realize that, it was horrible RainCaster Sep 2024 #15
Sick! LoisB Sep 2024 #6
This is disturbing beyonds words al bupp Sep 2024 #7
So even frenchwomen would choose the bear. ms liberty Sep 2024 #8
Misogyny is REALLY bad in France obamanut2012 Sep 2024 #12
These are the... 2naSalit Sep 2024 #9
I read the story at CNN and I found it interesting that they included a picture of the Bev54 Sep 2024 #10
Because CNN is rapidly becoming a Fox lookalike dickthegrouch Sep 2024 #13
It does seem to be against the law in France, it's called "Droit l'image" Abolishinist Sep 2024 #14
Well that is disgusting Coexist Sep 2024 #17
WTF IronLionZion Sep 2024 #16
This isn;t even the worst I know of Warpy Sep 2024 #18
as was said previously, CUT THEIR DAMN DICK'S OFF. a kennedy Sep 2024 #20
Exceptional article - the insights are well worth the read Earthrise Sep 2024 #21
Good God. Positively disgusting. peggysue2 Sep 2024 #23

CrispyQ

(38,723 posts)
1. Some of the men left when they saw she was completely unconscious, but not one went to the police.
Wed Sep 4, 2024, 11:36 AM
Sep 2024

So they are probably the second third of the men in the study you mention.

PCIntern

(27,086 posts)
3. These creeps...
Wed Sep 4, 2024, 11:44 AM
Sep 2024

My mother told me that during World War II, men would bring their wives in cars or vans to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard where she worked, on payday and charge anywhere from 2 to 5 dollars a throw.

These “customers” included men with whom she worked directly and she couldn’t look at them after she saw this.

obamanut2012

(27,961 posts)
11. My grandmom and your mom may have worked together
Wed Sep 4, 2024, 12:25 PM
Sep 2024

She said the same thing, literally the exact same scenario at the same place.

 

jimfields33

(19,382 posts)
5. This isn't just the spouse. This is much much more than that.
Wed Sep 4, 2024, 11:48 AM
Sep 2024

The article explains a lot.

RainCaster

(11,733 posts)
15. I realize that, it was horrible
Wed Sep 4, 2024, 01:26 PM
Sep 2024

But I could still see defense attorneys asking for a dismissal based on spousal rape if this took place in some states here in the US.

obamanut2012

(27,961 posts)
12. Misogyny is REALLY bad in France
Wed Sep 4, 2024, 12:26 PM
Sep 2024

A friend (woman) who has lived both there and Italy said the Italian men get the grief, but compared to Frenchmen, the Roman men were a cakewalk.

Bev54

(11,951 posts)
10. I read the story at CNN and I found it interesting that they included a picture of the
Wed Sep 4, 2024, 12:21 PM
Sep 2024

victim but none of her husband or the other accused. Why?

dickthegrouch

(3,685 posts)
13. Because CNN is rapidly becoming a Fox lookalike
Wed Sep 4, 2024, 12:33 PM
Sep 2024

And they’re shamelessly shaming the victim instead of the perpetrators.
French law might not allow them to show photos pre-conviction.

Abolishinist

(2,098 posts)
14. It does seem to be against the law in France, it's called "Droit l'image"
Wed Sep 4, 2024, 01:13 PM
Sep 2024

You need the permission to take the picture of someone or a group of people.

So the victim allowed the picture to be shown as she hopes that the Avignon trial will draw attention to the use of drugs to prey on women, and also shed light on the wide profile of predators. “They could be your neighbors, without falling into paranoia,” she said.

Warpy

(113,131 posts)
18. This isn;t even the worst I know of
Wed Sep 4, 2024, 02:28 PM
Sep 2024

The worst is someone I cared for when I was all of 19 years old. I won't describe it here.

Knowing how depraved and emotionally dead some men are has given me massive trust issues.

Earthrise

(15,718 posts)
21. Exceptional article - the insights are well worth the read
Wed Sep 4, 2024, 05:08 PM
Sep 2024

Pelico began. Drugging his wife because she wouldn’t consent to wearing certain types of clothes or engaging in certain acts.

Many of the men who raped Pelico’s wife didn’t believe it was rape because they thought the husband could consent for the wife.

Stunning layer after layer of misogyny.

peggysue2

(11,532 posts)
23. Good God. Positively disgusting.
Thu Sep 5, 2024, 11:36 AM
Sep 2024

How a husband could do this to his wife of 50 years is mind-boggling. How he could so easily recruit other men to rape his drugged wife is equally horrifying. And then, keep video evidence of the rapes!

Sick, sick, sick.

May all the perpetrators rot in jail! And yes, neutering them all would be fair justice.

Poor woman. Not sure how you recover from such a monstrous betrayal, not only the rapes but the sexual diseases she's been left with. The one man reportedly (BBC story) had HIV.

Monstrous.

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