French rape trial adjourned after Dominique Pelicot health issue reports

The trial of Dominique Pelicot and 50 other men accused of rape has been adjourned again after it was reported he was suffering from kidney problems and had refused to leave his prison cell.

Lawyers now fear the hearing, scheduled to last four months, may have to be postponed and have criticised the prison authorities for not acting sooner to treat him.

In a case that has horrified the world, the 71-year-old retired electrician has admitted drugging his wife, Gisèle, and inviting up to 90 men to rape her while she was unconscious and he filmed the attacks.

On Monday, after Pelicot failed to appear, the court appointed two medical experts to examine him. The president of the bench, Roger Arata, said it was hoped the trial could resume on Tuesday but warned he may have to postpone it if the principal accused was too unwell to attend.

Defence lawyers have accused the prison authorities of failing to act as soon as Pelicot complained of being unwell 10 days ago. He was reportedly taken to hospital on Sunday evening where he was diagnosed with a kidney infection, a kidney stone and a “prostate problem”. He was returned to his cell after tests.

“This could all have been avoided if he’d been treated from Monday [last week]. Why did they wait eight days?” Pelicot’s defence lawyer Béatrice Zavarro asked outside the court in Avignon.

Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer Stéphane Babonneau said that if the hearing had to be postponed because of the prison authorities’ failure to treat her former husband, it would be “a legal catastrophe, a scandal”.

“We are all waiting to hear if Dominique Pelicot can appear. If the hearing has to be postponed because he has a health problem that wasn’t treated, yes, we can talk of it being a scandal,” Babonneau said.

“Of course she [Gisèle Pelicot] is worried. She finds herself in a very difficult situation, as we all are. The trial is really at a very early stage; it has hardly even started. There is the presentation of the videos and the interrogation of the principal accused to come.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, has become the face of victims of rape and sexual abuse across France, where hundreds of protesters turned out at the weekend to show their support for her, many carrying posters showing her image and the words “Shame changes sides”.

She has been hailed for her courage in insisting the trial be held in public and not behind closed doors as defence lawyers had requested.

In a statement outside the court on Monday morning, Pelicot said she wanted to thank all those “who have shown me their support from the beginning of this ordeal and particularly those who took the time to gather Saturday across France.

“I was deeply touched by this movement … thanks to you all I have the strength to fight this to the end. I dedicate this fight to all people, women and men, who are victims of sexual violence across the world. To all those victims I say today look around you, you are not alone.”

Babonneau said: “She does feel very comforted by the support she has received this weekend. She is a simple and genuine woman and was surprised that so many people wanted to show their support. Her message to every victim of sexual abuse is that they should know that they are not alone and should not be alone.”

Pelicot had no idea that for more than a decade her husband had recruited men on an online chatroom to rape her while she was in a coma-like state until after he was arrested in 2020 for filming up the skirts of customers in a local supermarket.

The accused were aged between 26 and 73 when they were arrested and include a local councillor, a journalist, a former police officer, a prison guard, a soldier, a firefighter and a civil servant. Many were the couple’s neighbours in the small town of Mazan, near Avignon in southern France.

Several of the men insist they were unaware Pelicot had been drugged and assumed the sex was consensual. If convicted of rape they face up to 20 years in jail.

On Monday, Babonneau said he was shocked to find his client having to queue up to clear security at the courthouse with those accused of raping her.

“I arrived to see her in the queue literally sandwiched in between them. It was unbelievable that she should be there. I pulled her out and said we would skip the line,” he said.

“She has had to find the strength in herself to cope … I can tell you that she is even more of an incredible woman than she appears.”