Pelicot rape trial shifts France’s practices around drug-facilitated assaults
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Gisele Pelicot leaves the Avignon courthouse after hearing the defence's final plea.
PHOTO: AFP
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PARIS - Around late September, staff manning the phones at 39 19, France’s main anonymous hotline for women who are victims of violence, began noticing a new type of case.
“The caller thinks she’s been drugged and potentially raped. She had suspicions a few months ago and all the information around the Mazan trial has helped her put the pieces together,” a staff member detailed in a write-up of one of several calls seen by Reuters.
The trial, in which Dominique Pelicot has admitted to drugging his wife Gisele and recruiting dozens of men online to rape her while she was unconscious over nearly a decade, is reaching its end. Dozens of verdicts are expected on Dec 19.
The mass rape trial has shocked France and its implications will be felt far beyond the Avignon courthouse where judges have heard and seen more than three months of evidence. Gisele Pelicot, 72, has become a feminist hero both at home and abroad for waiving her right to anonymity and standing up to her abusers in court.
There are also signs that the case has started shifting social and medical practices in France around drug-facilitated sexual assault, according to 10 doctors, social workers and activists Reuters spoke with.
Supporters of Frenchwoman Gisele Pelicot point their fingers during an action outside the courthouse during the trial for Dominique Pelicot and 50 co-accused, in Avignon, France. The placard reads “Thank you Gisele”.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Women’s rights group Solidarite Femmes, which runs the 39 19 hotline, said it had noticed a clear increase in women reporting suspected cases of “chemical submission” – the act of drugging someone without their consent for criminal purposes – as well as sexual violence within a couple.
“Women call us citing the trial, saying it resonates with their experience,” Mine Gunbay, the head of the organisation, told Reuters.
To better answer these callers’ new questions, Solidarite Femmes organised a training for its phone counsellors in early December.
Lucie, who declined to share her full name due to regular threats received by 39 19 staff, attended the training in Paris. Among other things, she said she learnt that most drug-facilitated assaults take place at home rather than in bars.
She also learnt about the legal and medical resources that exist to help suspected victims. Two days later, she was able to point a caller in the right direction with her new knowledge.
Changes in medical care
The Pelicot trial has also prompted soul-searching among some in the medical community, with doctors seeking to deepen their understanding of chemical submission.
Doctors failed to identify the years of drugging and sexual assaults committed against Gisele Pelicot, who was tested for Alzheimer’s and brain tumours in an attempt to find the cause of the mysterious blackouts she suffered at her home in the south-eastern village of Mazan.
Leila Chaouachi, a pharmacist who founded the Crafs, a centre opened in 2024 to provide information for medical staff and potential victims on the issue of drug-facilitated assault, said doctors and nurses were eager to improve their knowledge in the wake of the Pelicot case.
“We are overwhelmed with training requests from all over the country,” Ms Chaouachi said. The training includes understanding what drug-facilitated assault symptoms can look like and how to collect evidence of the drugging when possible.
In late November, the government announced measures to ensure potential victims have better access to testing for the presence of drugs in their system, pushed in part by Gisele Pelicot’s daughter’s advocacy work through M’Endors Pas (Don’t put me to sleep), a group she launched in 2023 to raise awareness on drug-facilitated assault.
A woman walks past a slogan that reads “Justice for Gisele, Justice for all” and a collage depicting Gisele Pelicot on a city wall in Avignon, France.
PHOTO: REUTERS
An amendment to create a pilot scheme offering free blood tests to those who suspected they had been drugged and assaulted was included in the 2025 budget Bill, but the legislation failed to pass in the political turmoil that toppled former prime minister Michel Barnier earlier in December.
The proposal must now wait for fresh talks over the 2025 budget, expected to begin in January. But measures already adopted are testament to the impact of the Pelicot case on French attitudes to drug-facilitated assault, said Christine Louis-Vahdat, a representative of France’s Medical Association.
“Without the trial, it would have probably taken much longer to obtain the funding,” she said.
Ms Louis-Vahdat said the proposed measure, which could be scaled up in the future, would be a crucial step to ensuring doctors have the means to spot cases of drug-facilitated assault.
“The trial has put a spotlight on doctors’ lack of tools,” she said.
The case has also inspired academic research. Doctors at Geneva University Hospitals have recently incorporated chemical submission into an ongoing study on sexual abuse cases after receiving data requests from reporters covering the trial.
“This trial will, I hope, be a point of no return,” said Ms Chaouachi. REUTERS
