Laura Gozzi
Reporting from court in Avignon

Warning: This post contains distressing details

Dominique Pelicot has begun speaking - he starts by addressing his children.

He says this is the first time he has seen them in four years. "I realised I did damage to them but not to this extent," he tells the court.

"I insist that I never touched my children or my grandchildren.

"I hold them in my heart anyway," he says as his voice breaks.

He speaks also of Gisèle's evidence this morning saying "she is strong, and she keeps it all in".

Image source, Reuters

Dominique Pelicot has started giving evidence. He has remained in the defendants' box and stays seated.

As a reminder, Dominique has already admitted to the charges against him. Also on trial are 50 other co-defendants who are accused of participating in the rape of Gisèle Pelicot as she slept.

We'll bring you key moments from his testimony as we receive them.

The court is now taking a short break, after which we're expecting to hear from Dominique Pelicot, Gisèle's ex-husband who has admitted to raping her, among other charges.

For the past few hours, we've been hearing from president of the court, Roger Arata, who has been reading evidence heard earlier in the trial and from the police investigation. He has also outlined details of two cold cases which are not directly related to the alleged offences against Gisèle Pelicot, but which police suspect Dominique Pelicot was involved in.

You can read the details of those cases in the post below this one.

Laura Gozzi
Reporting from court in Avignon

Warning: This post contains distressing details

Since the session resumed after lunch, the president of the court, Roger Arata, has been reading out documents and evidence from the trial and the investigation into Dominique Pelicot.

In particular, the excerpts Arata is reading out focus on two “cold cases” unrelated to Gisele Pelicot that police suspect Dominique was involved in: the attempted rape of an estate agent known by the pseudonym Marion in 1999 and the murder of another estate agent, Sophie Marne, in 1991. Both incidents occurred near Paris.

When questioned by investigators, Dominique admitted to the attempted rape, but denied killing Marne - although police argue the method and circumstances in which she was murdered are too similar to those of Marion's attempted rape to be coincidental.

For much of the last two hours we have listened to very graphic excerpts being read in court from the statements Pelicot gave to police. These previous comments detail the way he tried to rape Marion, and his rebuttals of suggestions he was responsible for the 1991 murder.

The tone of the president of the court - who has now been reading for hours - is rather flat and monotonous. Several of the defendants in the box to my left seem to be dozing off.

Gisele, on my right, is on her phone. She occasionally exchanges a few words with her children, who sit next to her.

Dominique is still expected to give a final statement today, but questions by the defence’s lawyers would undoubtedly follow and they can be quite lengthy – so there’s still a lot to pack into the last few hours of today’s session.

Dominique Pelicot has been in jail since November 2020.

He will be sentenced next month on 20 December, alongside any other defendants found guilty in the case.

As a reminder, Dominique admitted to all the charges against him - including rape, attempted rape and image offences - immediately after his arrest.

Laura Gozzi
Reporting from court in Avignon

We've been hearing from the president of the court, who has been sifting through evidence against Dominique Pelicot before he takes to the stand.

The president is reading out long excerpts from the evidence in a flat tone. Many of the co-defendants in the box look sleepy - and Dominique keeps rubbing his eyes.

Gisèle wriggles in her seat and looks at her phone.

Laura Gozzi
Reporting from court in Avignon

While we wait for Dominique Pelicot to give evidence, let's take a quick look at some key dates in the case.

• 1952: Dominique is born in France; Gisèle is born in Germany from a French family
• 1973: Dominique and Gisèle get married
• 2010: Mr Pelicot is spotted taking pictures under women's skirts [upskirting] with a hidden camera. He is fined €100 and released. His wife is not notified by police
• 2011: Ms Pelicot begins experiencing the first blackouts and memory losses - later revealed to have been symptoms of the drugs her husband was giving her

• 2013: The couple move to Mazan, in the south of France, to retire
• September 2020: Mr Pelicot is detained after being caught upskirting in a supermarket near his home in the south of France
• 2 November 2020: Mr Pelicot is arrested after hundreds of videos and photos of strangers abusing his drugged wife are found on his computer. He admits - among other charges - to aggravated rape
• 2020-2022: Police work to identify the men that appear on the videos of the alleged rapes organised and facilitated by Mr Pelicot
• August 2024: The Pelicots' divorce is finalised
• 2 September 2024: The trial begins

Laura Gozzi
Reporting from court in Avignon

The last 40 minutes of the trial has heard of the evidence gathered against Dominique during the course of the investigation.

As we've been reporting, that has included police statements from Gisèle Pelicot's ex-husband, where he describes in explicit detail how he "facilitated multiple rapes".

Gisèle is here in the courtroom listening. As one of the statements was read out she looked towards the ceiling - she remains expressionless.

Laura Gozzi
Reporting from court in Avignon

• Warning: This post contains distressing details

The court is continuing to hear about the evidence gathered about Dominique Pelicot's crimes through the course of the police investigation.

We have not yet heard anything new from the evidence, and Dominique has yet to take the stand.

Attendees in court have just heard a statement Dominique gave police in November 2020.

In it, he admits that "between 30 and 50 people" have come to their house "to have sex with my wife".

He adds that he would organise meet ups.

Dominique, in the statement, also says that he "facilitated the rapes".

When asked by police what the word "rape" means, he responds "sex without her knowledge, without her consent".

As a reminder, other defendants stand accused but have denied raping Gisèle.

Laura Gozzi
Reporting from court in Avignon

• Warning: This post contains distressing details

We're now hearing details from a statement Dominique Pelicot gave to police when he was arrested in 2020.

He is present in the court while the statement is read out, but is not yet on the stand.

In his statement, he admitted to putting sleeping pills in Gisèle's food, and said that once she was asleep he would sexually abuse her and take pictures.

He also admits that while he did this, he would dress her in underwear that he had given her but that she refused to wear.

We're back in court in Avignon after a lunch break.

Lawyers are now looking through evidence, including a statement from Dominique Pelicot that was submitted after his arrest in November 2020. Dominique is expected to speak this afternoon.

Stay with us as our correspondent Laura Gozzi brings key lines from the proceedings.

Laura Gozzi
Reporting from Avignon

Dominique and Gisèle Pelicot, who were both born in 1952, married in 1973 and had three children. She worked as a manager in a large French company, while he - a trained electrician - started several ultimately unsuccessful businesses.

The Pelicots lived in the Paris region until 2013, when they retired to the picturesque southern village of Mazan. They had a big house with a swimming pool and often used to entertain their extended family during the summer holidays.

By all accounts, they were a happy, close-knit couple. "We shared holidays, anniversaries, Christmases... All of that, for me, was happiness," Gisèle Pelicot has said.

Between 2011 and 2020, she experienced unsettling symptoms she took to be signs of Alzheimer's or a brain tumour, and underwent extensive medical exams. The blackouts and memory loss were, in fact, side-effects of the drugs her husband was giving her without her knowledge.

Gisèle Pelicot divorced her husband soon after his crimes came to light. She is only using her married name for the purposes of the trial.

Dominique Pelicot has been in jail since November 2020. He will be sentenced next month, alongside the other 50 defendants.

Laura Gozzi
Reporting from Avignon

Walking the peaceful streets of charming Avignon in southern France, you wouldn't guess that a momentous and shocking trial is taking place somewhere between the town's medieval walls and the leafy squares.

But as you approach the courthouse, graffiti and posters by a feminist collective in support of Gisèle Pelicot begin appearing on the walls:

Image source, Reuters

Warning: This post contains distressing details

We've heard a lot today about two incidents where Dominique Pelicot attempted to film up women's skirts.

The first of these incidents was in 2010, when he was caught and fined for the offence.

Gisèle Pelicot says she was unaware that this had occurred until last year.

But it was a similar incident in 2020 that led to the current trial.

In September that year, Dominique Pelicot was caught filming under women's skirts by a security guard in a supermarket in southern France.

He was detained and police confiscated his electronic devices.

After noticing suspicious chats on his Skype account, police found thousands of videos of men having sex with a seemingly unconscious woman – his wife, Gisèle.

Investigators worked for weeks to gather enough evidence to take him into custody and he was eventually arrested in November 2020.

He admitted to drugging Gisèle for almost a decade and recruiting dozens of men to rape her - and he is now on trial, alongside 50 other men accused of participating in the abuse.

Laura Gozzi
Reporting from court in Avignon

It is obvious that Gisèle Pelicot is very tired.

Since September, she has sat in court most days listening to graphic descriptions of the alleged rapes of which she was the victim, and has withstood some aggressive questioning from defence lawyers.

Today, one of the last questions that was put to her had to do with her choosing to keep the Pelicot name despite divorcing Dominique Pelicot.

She answered that she wanted her grandchildren to be proud of it - because it would be associated with her and this trial, rather than her ex-husband's crimes.

More than 100 people were sat in the courtroom, yet you could've heard a pin drop.

Gisèle may be exhausted and carrying an enormous amount of trauma, but her voice was calm and very assured as she said this. It was also her first acknowledgment of the global resonance this trial has had.

In his box, Dominique Pelicot - the patriarch of the family which has been torn apart by his crimes - glanced at his ex-wife, then looked down.

He will take the stand this afternoon.

We've been reporting on Gisèle Pelicot's evidence in the ongoing mass rape trial of 51 defendants including her ex-husband.

In the below images you can see her as she arrived in court this morning, as well as some of the defendants going through security earlier today - a standard procedure for everyone arriving to a court building.

Dominique Pelicot's lawyer has also been speaking today with journalists. We're due to hear his evidence next, so keep checking back with us as we follow along.

Court is set to resume at 14:00 local time (13:00 GMT).

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

Laura Gozzi
Reporting from Avignon

The horror of Dominique Pelicot's actions, the sheer number of men implicated in the case and Gisèle Pelicot's decision to push for an open trial has meant that the proceedings have drawn significant attention.

Dozens of members of the public attend court in Avignon each day to back Gisèle Pelicot, meeting her with applause and handing her flowers.

Murals have appeared across the country depicting her distinctive look of a short bob and round sunglasses, and demonstrations have taken place all over France in her support.

Above all, she is credited by many with sparking a conversation on rape culture, misogyny and chemical submission.

Several feminist groups are now pushing for the government to amend its definition of rape to include consent, as is already the case in many European countries.

"Society has already accepted the fact that the difference between sex and rape is consent," said Greens senator Mélanie Vogel, who proposed a consent-based rape law last year. "Criminal law, however, has not."

• Asked why she finds it difficult to condemn her ex-husband, Gisèle said she remains a "positive person" - and said Dominique had a "complicated" childhood
• She said she won't "ever feel at peace until the end of my life... I'll learn to live with it. I'll rebuild myself. But there'll forever be 51 people who have defiled me"
• She said the defendants recruited by her ex-husband may have been "naive" to come to the house
• But she insisted: "Your conscience has to kick in when you step into the bedroom. They [the defendants] are not children"
• Asked if her ex-husband was a sexual predator, she said: "Of course, certainly", adding "I don't forgive him. His actions were unforgivable. I was betrayed and fooled"
• She said she "couldn't have imagined for a second he was capable of chemical submission... my friends, my family saw nothing. I lived with a good person"
• Gisèle Pelicot said she only became aware of her husband's upskirting case - which prompted this trial - last year
• "If I'd known that might have changed my life," she said. "I might have asked that he get help"
• Finally, she was asked about continuing to use her ex-husband's name, Pelicot: "I have grandchildren who are called that. Today, I want them to be proud of their grandmother. My name is known across the world now. They shouldn't be ashamed of carrying that name"

Read our earlier recap here, and our correspondent Laura Gozzi's snap report here

Laura Gozzi
Reporting from court in Avignon

Gisèle Pelicot has finished her evidence.

As she left the stand she walked back to her side of the courtroom, sitting down with a slight smile.

She rests her head against the wall.

Dominique sits across the room - he has barely changed expression throughout. He stares ahead.

Laura Gozzi
Reporting from court in Avignon

Gisèle has been questioned by multiple lawyers today. The last to cross-examine her asked about her decision to continue using the surname "Pelicot".

Gisèle explains that when the trial began her children were "ashamed" of the name.

She adds: "I have grandchildren who are called that.

"Today, I want them to be proud of their grandmother.

"My name is known across the world now. They shouldn't be ashamed of carrying that name.

"Today we will remember Gisèle Pelicot."