A silent march took place in support of Gisèle Pelicot and other female victims of sexual violence on Saturday in Mazan, the village where Pelicot’s husband is accused of drugging her and inviting more than 80 men to assault her at their home, reports The Guardian.
Hundreds of women and men turned out in solidarity with the woman at the centre of a case that has shocked the world. Members of the Pelicot family did not attend but said they appreciated the public support.
One woman on the march told French reporters: “I am there as a woman, mother and grandmother … I am here firstly to support Gisèle, who is really very brave, and other women and girls.”
She said she hoped the case would persuade people to “listen to women … and not close their eyes” to sexual abuse.
On Friday, judges at the mass rape trial in Avignon agreed to allow videos made by Dominique Pelicot of the alleged abuse of his wife to be shown to the press and public in the courtroom.
The president of the bench, Roger Arata, had argued the court should be cleared of those not directly involved in the case because the videos represented an affront to public decency and were too “shocking”.
The bench agreed to allow them to be screened in open court after Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyers insisted their client wanted them shown. As Pelicot, 72, was drugged to the point of being comatose, she has no memory of the rapes and says the videos are proof of what she suffered.
A majority of the 50 men accused of raping her have denied the charges, saying they thought she was pretending to be asleep and they had acted with the consent of her husband.