I have written blogs on many topics since I started blogging two decades ago. Violence in any form, especially against women and children, affects me the most.
I recently came across the story of Gisèle Pelicot, who spent nearly fifty years with the man she believed was her loving husband. What happened inside that marriage is difficult to comprehend.
In 1973, Gisèle Pelicot married Dominique Pelicot. They were young when they began their life together and went on to raise children and share decades of family life. Their marriage looked like one that survived the usual challenges couples face.
To the outside world, nothing seemed unusual. Even Gisèle herself did not know for years what was happening behind closed doors.
Around 2011, nearly forty years after their wedding, Dominique Pelicot began drugging his wife. He crushed sedatives into her food and drinks and waited until she lost consciousness. Then he invited other men into their home to rape her while she lay heavily sedated. This continued for about nine years.
Dozens of men entered that bedroom. Many saw a woman who was clearly unconscious and proceeded anyway.
Gisèle did not know what he was doing to her. She experienced memory gaps, felt physically unwell, and woke up confused. Like many women, she searched for explanations that did not involve the man she trusted since 1973. When abuse comes from the person you love and trust most, your mind resists the truth.
The abuse did not stop because he confessed or because someone in the family discovered it. It stopped in 2020 when police arrested Dominique Pelicot for a separate crime. He was caught filming up women’s skirts in a supermarket. Police seized his electronic devices and discovered hundreds of videos documenting the assaults on his wife.
As the case unfolded, attention turned to their children. Public reports said there was no evidence the children knew what was happening to their mother at the time. There was also no evidence that they participated in the assaults against her. Investigators found troubling images involving two of the couple’s daughters on his devices, and authorities filed additional charges. The daughters publicly expressed their belief that he may have drugged and abused them as well, though the legal process examined those allegations separately.
The betrayal did not stop with the marriage. When their children learned what their father had done, their sense of safety and trust collapsed. Even though they did not know at the time, they now had to process the destruction of everything they believed about him. That kind of damage does not heal easily, and in some cases, it never fully heals.
The court prosecuted Dominique Pelicot. He admitted that he drugged his wife and organized the assaults. The court convicted him and sentenced him to 20 years in prison, the maximum sentence allowed under French law. His public image as a husband and father ended in that courtroom.
For Gisèle, and victims like her, recovery is far more complicated. Surviving something like this does not mean waking up one day and feeling strong. Recovery from this kind of betrayal and sexual violence requires trauma therapy, medical support, and the slow rebuilding of trust in oneself and others.
She chose to rebuild her life privately and focused on healing and on her children. She faced not only physical and emotional violation but also the collapse of a marriage that lasted nearly forty years before the abuse began. The children, now adults, supported their mother publicly and spoke about the shock, grief, and anger that followed the revelations. They confronted the reality that their father lived a very disturbing life.
Gisèle and her children now live away from him and try to move forward. They carry the weight of what happened, but they no longer live in silence.
What they went through reminds us that trust can be exploited. A marriage that lasted nearly fifty years concealed almost a decade of deliberate abuse. What happened between 2011 and 2020 will always remain part of their history, but we can refuse to ignore what this story reveals.
It should also remind us that abuse can quietly enter anyone’s life in many forms, gain our trust over years, and then shatter it.
If we truly want change, we must begin by taking these steps:
- We can believe women when they describe confusion or unexplained harm.
- We can take intimate partner violence seriously, even when it contradicts the image of a respectable family.
- We can stop assuming that longevity equals trustworthiness.
- We should be more aware that the misuse of God’s word to control or silence someone is still abuse. Faith should never become a tool for manipulation or fear.
When abuse is exposed, it rarely affects only one person. It often leaves an entire family trying to stand up again. Trust should never be used as a weapon. When someone betrays that trust, the responsibility belongs entirely to the one who caused the harm. At the same time, recognizing the abuse and reaching out for help is an important step toward safety and healing.
Sources:
New York Times – Coverage of the Gisèle Pelicot case: https://www.nytimes.com/
BBC News - Reporting on the Dominique Pelicot trial: https://www.bbc.com/news
France 24 – Trial and sentencing coverage: https://www.france24.com/
Reuters – Case and sentencing report: https://www.reuters.com/
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