A court, which is hearing the case of a French man charged with drugging his wife and enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her, on Wednesday heard from the survivor that she was unsure if she would ever recover.

Gisele Pelicot, whose alleged abuse at the hands of her husband and some 50 other men has deeply shocked France, was greeted with applause by supporters as she arrived at court.

Pelicot, who has allowed her name to be made public, has encouraged other women who have been sexually assaulted to come forward.

What did Gisele Pelicot say?

The 72-year-old Pelicot was addressing the court for a second time Wednesday, at the invitation of presiding judge Roger Arata.

"I am a woman who is completely broken," Pelicot told the court, adding that she wanted to "change society" when it comes to dealing with sexual assault.

"I don't know how I'm going to rebuild myself," she said. "I'm not sure my life will be long enough to recover from this."

Dominique Pelicot filmed much of the abuse against his wife and also took detailed records of the strangers who visited their home. This subsequently helped police uncover the crimes.

He has admitted to facilitating the rape of his wife repeatedly between 2011 and 2020.

'How could you allow these people into our house?'

Speaking in court, Pelicot then addressed her former husband who was sitting in the dock without looking at her.

She asked him to explain what made him drug her over almost a decade, rape her and recruit strangers to do the same.

"I'm trying to understand how my husband, who was the perfect man, became like this. How my life changed. How could you allow these people into our house? For me, this betrayal is immeasurable. After 50 years together... I used to think I was going to be with this man until the end."

Looking at her former husband she said, "I always tried to lift you higher, you who plumbed the depths of the human soul, but you made your own choices."

Despite video evidence against them, at least 35 of the defendants deny the rape charges.

They claim that Dominique Pelicot tricked them into thinking they were taking part in a sex game, or that Gisele Pelicot had been pretending to sleep.

Possible change to the law

French criminal law defines rape as a penetrative or oral sex act committed using "violence, coercion, threat or surprise." However, it makes no clear mention of the need for a partner's consent.

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets to support Gisele Pelicot with the case re-energizing the push for change to include consent in the wording.

France's new Justice Minister Didier Migaud has recently said he is in favour of updating the law, as has French President Emmanuel Macron.

France prevented the inclusion of a consent-based rape definition in a European directive in 2023.

DW does not usually publish the names of victims but is doing so in this instance as per Pelicot's request for public naming in her effort to raise awareness about sexual abuse.

rc/lo (AFP, Reuters)