French rape survivor Gisele Pelicot has described the impact of the horrific abuse suffered at the hands of her former husband and the men he invited to sexually assault her, in her first televised interview.
In December 2024, Dominique Pelicot was sentenced to 20 years in prison for drugging and raping Ms Pelicot, and for allowing other men to assault her while she was unconscious.
In an interview with Newsnight to be broadcast tomorrow night (15 Feb), Gisele Pelicot described the case as “a descent into hell”, telling presenter Victoria Derbyshire: “I was truly sacrificed on the altar of vice. I was a martyred woman thrown as prey to all these individuals.”
Explaining one of the men who assaulted her was HIV-positive, she added: “It was sheer luck that I didn’t contract the virus. Because of that too, I feel someone up there protected me, because I really am a survivor.”
