France: Giselle Pelico describes the day she learned the tragic truth – “My world collapsed”

With Giselle’s testimony Pelico continues today the trial that has shocked not only the , where the crimes of the 71-year-old Dominique Pelico were committed, but the whole world. Giselle Pelico began her testimony from the day she learned the tragic truth, that for nine years her husband Dominique Pelico drugged her to rape her and strangers whom she invited home to France without her ignorance. September 19, 2020 , Giselle Pelico learns that her 70-year-old husband was arrested and detained for filming under women’s skirts in a supermarket. Her husband said she had done something “stupid”. On November 2, 2020, she was called along with her husband to the Carpentras police station. He thought it was a “typical process”. She had no doubt about her husband: “Our lives have not been transparent for 50 years, but we have always been together. Financial problems, relationship problems, health problems, I’ve always supported my husband.” Giselle was called separately by her husband to the police station. The interview lasted an hour and 15 minutes and the questions came one after another: “The way the interview went, I didn’t understand…” he said. The policeman asked her to describe her husband. She describes a man “loving, nice guy”. The officer stopped questioning. He was about to give her a big revelation. He says: “I will show you things that will not please you. She’s shaking her head: “You’re scaring me!” In court, he adds: “I had no idea what he was going to show me”. Giselle Peliko continues: “It shows me a picture. I don’t have my glasses. I don’t recognize the woman in bed. He says ‘Mrs Peliko, look carefully’. I find it hard to recognize myself, I’m dressed in a certain way. In the third photo, I say to him, “Stop, these are rape scenes. I sleep and I get raped. Rape is bad, it’s barbaric. All I want to do is run to my house.” The victim takes breath and continues: “My world is falling apart. […] Everything I built with Mr. Pelicus is falling apart. Three children, seven grandchildren, one pair tied. Even our friends said we were the ideal couple.” “I can’t imagine what I’ll find out next,” he says in the courtroom. After her husband was detained, police organized an investigation at their home to examine his computer. Police then discovered a series of videos the defendant had filmed, which showed his wife being filmed, unconscious, sexually abused by men. “I sacrificed myself to the altar of immorality”. Giselle Pelico says she has watched all the videos her husband took. “They are not sex scenes, they are rape scenes, there are two or three of them on me. I’m unconscious. I’ve never done a threesome or swinging”. The victim added: “I sacrificed myself on the altar of violence (…) When you see this woman, drugged, abused, dead in a bed, of course the body is not cold, it is warm, but I’m like dead.” “These men abuse me, exploit me”. Finally in chemical submission Peliko then claimed that she wanted her testimony to be made public, so that “no woman would submit to the seminal submission”. The term “chemical submission” is international and used for victims who were drugged and subsequently raped. “This is why I did not want the trial to be closed. I do so on behalf of all those women who may never be identified as victims.” “Take responsibility for your actions at least once in your life” The court president asked Giselle Peliko what she thinks of the 51 accused statements, 35 of which denied any intention of rape. “I think they should admit the facts – anything else is unbearable. There’s already a feeling of disgust. Take responsibility for your actions at least once in your life,” he said.