Stéphane Babonneau had to watch thousands of videos of Gisèle Pelicot being raped, before disclosing their horror to her. He explains how she found the courage to cope – and to change the world for other survivors
When the lawyer Stéphane Babonneau took on what would become the most horrific case of his career, he faced a dilemma. He knew his client Gisèle Pelicot had to be told details of the hundreds of rapes her husband had subjected her to while she was unconscious over the course of almost a decade, but how could he possibly do so without causing her even more harm?
By 2022, when Babonneau took the case, Gisèle knew that her husband, Dominique, had drugged her and invited strangers he met online into their home to assault her, but she had no idea of the specifics. Babonneau would find out after watching many of the 20,000 videos and photographs Gisèle’s husband had made over the years. “Everyone was extremely worried she could have a nervous breakdown,” Babonneau says. “What would happen when she was faced with the full truth and scale of what was done to her?”
