French Court Hears Shocking Testimony of Woman Drugged by Husband, Raped by Dozens Over 10 Years
By Matthew Eloyi
In a harrowing court testimony, a 71-year-old woman from southern France described the “barbaric” abuse she endured after being allegedly drugged by her husband and raped by dozens of men.
“The image is unbearable, I’m lying lifeless in my bed, asleep, and they’re about to rape me. It’s a barbaric scene. They look at me like a bag of rubbish, it’s unbearable, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to get up again,” the woman recounted in an Avignon courtroom, according to local media.
Her 72-year-old ex-husband, currently on trial, is accused of drugging his wife and facilitating the abuse by inviting men to rape her over a period of 10 years. Fifty men have also been charged for their involvement in the crimes, with 18 of the accused in custody.
The offences came to light when the man was arrested for secretly filming under the skirts of supermarket customers. Investigators found hundreds of videos on his computer showing the abuse.
The woman appeared in court accompanied by her three children, determined to face her attackers. Many of the accused, aged between 21 and 68 at the time of the assaults, admitted to the crimes. Some, however, claimed they believed the couple was engaged in consensual sex games, a defence the victim fiercely rejected.
“These people knew very well what they were doing and what a lethargic state I was in,” she told the court, dismissing the claim that she was pretending to be asleep.
The abuse remained unknown to the woman due to the large doses of drugs her husband had administered. She had complained for years of memory lapses and extreme fatigue, never suspecting that she was being exploited.
“I was sedated, like before going into the operating theatre. Afterwards, you can no longer remember the operation. That’s exactly what happened to me,” she explained.
While 72 men were identified in the videos, not all could be traced by the police, leaving the full scale of the abuse still unfolding in court.