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A warning - this next story contains disturbing details of sexual assault and will last about three minutes. A man at the center of a mass rape trial in France testified today. He is accused of drugging his wife and offering her up to a steady stream of men from an online chat room. The rape trial of 51 men has riveted and shocked France. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: I am a rapist, 71-year-old Dominique Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, admitting to drugging his wife for a decade and bringing dozens of men in to abuse her in her own bedroom while he filmed. He spoke in a low voice, sometimes near tears. He said his wife of 50 years, Gisele Pelicot, did not deserve this, that he had a problem and begged his family for forgiveness. The crime has enraged French women...
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Chanting in French).
BEARDSLEY: ...Who poured into the streets of several cities over the weekend. In Paris, they chanted, rapist, we see you; victim, we believe you, and demanded an end to what they call France's rape culture, where they say violence against women is minimized and normalized. Geraldine Pacaut believes this trial could change something.
GERALDINE PACAUT: We never felt such an anger. It's something really strong that happens now.
BEARDSLEY: Seventy-one-year-old victim Gisele Pelicot has become a hero by insisting on a public trial. Pelicot testified in court 10 days ago. She spoke about years of memory lapses and blackouts she didn't understand until the police called her in one day. They had arrested her husband on unrelated charges and found 20,000 pictures and videos on his computer. She told the court she had believed her husband was a good man. Now she was trying to rebuild her life from the ashes. On Monday, Gisele Pelicot told the media she was moved by all the support.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
GISELE PELICOT: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: "Especially everyone who came out across the country to demonstrate for me," she said. "Thanks to you I have the strength to go on." Pelicot said she represents all victims of sexual abuse.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PSYCHIATRIST: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: In the court room in Avignon last week, a psychiatrist testified that many of the accused men had been abused as children. Some of the 50 on trial sat slumped. Others wore masks and hats. Eighteen not granted bail sat in a specially built box. Dominique Pelicot, now the ex-husband of the victim, says he was raped when he was 9. But Brigitte Abdelee (ph), who came to watch the trial and support Gisele Pelicot, says she rejects that as a line of defense.
BRIGITTE ABDELEE: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: "When you have lived through pain, you don't pass it on," she said. The men risk 20 years in prison. Many claim they thought Gisele Pelicot was a willing participant in a sex game and that her then-husband told them his wife had taken something to calm her nerves. Today Dominique Pelicot said they were all rapists like him. Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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