Gisèle Pelicot says her rape trial was ‘for all women’ as she speaks at UK launch of memoir

“It gave me an enormous amount of strength,” she said. “I had to stay there, we were really connected.”

What she said about the trial

Pelicot waived her right to anonymity and chose to hold a public trial after discovering that her then husband, Dominique Pelicot, had drugged and raped her while she was unconscious, and invited dozens of men to assault her.

The case led to 51 men being convicted in 2024. They were sentenced to a total of 428 years in prison. Forty-seven were found guilty of rape, two of attempted rape and two of sexual assault.

At the event in London, she said she had not followed news coverage during the trial. Instead, she ended each day by reading letters from women around the world who shared their own experiences.

“This actually gave me strength,” she said. “It wasn’t just my own trial.”

She described the proceedings as “the trial of cowardice” because, she said, “none of them admitted they’d done anything wrong”.

‘A message of hope’

In her memoir, written with journalist Judith Perrignon, Pelicot recalls the moment police told her what had happened. She writes that her “brain shut down”.

Asked about around 20 further attackers who investigators believe have not yet been identified, she said she did not know if they would ever be found.

“Sometimes I fear these individuals could continue committing crimes,” she said. “Maybe they’ll be caught one day. But unfortunately, I don’t know.”

She also spoke about the effect on her family. “This trauma didn’t bring us together,” she said. “It’s not true that trauma necessarily brings family together.”

Reflecting on her former husband, she said he was “a man split in two”.

“I tried to bring him into the light, but he has this dark side,” she said. “It’s intolerable. It’s unacceptable. This shattered our family.”

There is a brief passage in the book where she writes that she once considered “ending it all”. Speaking on Friday, she said it was “only a momentary thought”.

“I thought no. I have to continue. It was important to face up to reality,” she said.

She told the audience that above all, the book carries “a message of hope”.

“Look at what I’ve gone through, I’m still here,” she said. “We can go through difficult times. We can get through.” Pelicot said her aim now is to live “serenely”, but added: “I’ll always listen to women who need support. I’ll always be here.”

A Hymn to Life is published in the UK by Bodley Head and is available now.