AVIGNON, France: The wives and girlfriends of dozens of men on trial in France accused of raping another woman while she was drugged by her husband have reacted with anger and disbelief, although some say they will stand by the accused.

In a court case that has shocked France, Dominique Pelicot, 71, has admitted to drugging his then wife Gisele with sedatives so that strangers could sexually abuse her in her own bed for almost a decade until 2020. Another 50 men, aged 26 to 74, are also on trial in the southern city of Avignon accused of responding to his invitation to rape her.

Some, including Pelicot, are in custody, and one is being tried in absentia, but 32 of the defendants are attending as free men. Among the women who have testified at the trial, Vanessa P said she no longer had any respect for her former partner Quentin H, 34, who was a prison guard when he allegedly abused Gisele Pelicot. “When you see what they are accusing him of, you start doubting everything,” said the childcare worker, accusing him of being “manipulative”.

Emilie O, 33, similarly described her ex-partner Hugues M, a 39-year-old charged with “attempted rape” in the trial. “I thought I was living a peaceful and fulfilling life, but I was wrong,” she said, adding she would always fear that she too was raped.

Emilie O separated from her partner in 2020, when police uncovered the years-long abuse of Gisele Pelicot and she discovered Hugues M had had several affairs.

Gisele Pelicot, now 71, has become a feminist icon at home and abroad since the trial started in September, refusing to be ashamed and demanding the trial be open to the public. Like her, Cilia M was also drugged and raped. Her husband Jean-Pierre M, 63, is the only defendant in the trial not accused of abusing Gisele Pelicot. Instead he and Dominique Pelicot have been charged with repeatedly drugging and sexually assaulting Cilia M between 2015 and 2018, using the same method.

“He was wonderful, but he destroyed us,” said the mother of his five children, one of whom is disabled. Cilia M told the court she would “never forgive” her husband, who has claimed his own father sexually abused him as a child. She has since separated from him, but has not pressed charges in order to “protect” her children. Corinne M had already separated from her husband, former builder Thierry P., 54, when the Pelicot case came to light, after the death of their son in a traffic accident had driven him to become alcoholic.

She was confused by his behavior. When it came to sex, “he was always respectful. When it was no, it was no... I really don’t understand why he is here today,” she said at the trial.

Veronique Le Goaziou, a sociologist specializing in the subject of sexual abuse, told AFP partners of defendants were usually “stunned”. They often struggled to imagine the alleged violence as it went “beyond their understanding”, she said. “In some cases... they simply cannot or will not believe it.”

Samira T said she was still trying to understand why her partner Jerome V six times raped Gisele Pelicot in her home in the southern town of Mazan in 2020. But she would stand by him to “support” him.

“If we met it’s no coincidence,” she said. “I was given this mission.” Jerome V, a 46-year-old former minimart employee who claims he has slept with 89 people, told the court he was unable to control his sexuality. Samira T said that she had sought to satisfy his high libido, complying with his requests for sex almost every day “at 10 at night” and agreeing to having naked pictures taken of her or going on walks in the nude. “He had no reason to go look elsewhere,” she said, crying. — AFP