Speaker 1: Justa heads up, we'll be discussing sexual abuse and distressing
Speaker 1: themes on the podcast today. The episode might not be
Speaker 1: for everyone, so if you're not filling up to it,
Speaker 1: feel free to skip and come back again tomorrow. Good morning,
Speaker 1: and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Monday, the sixteenth
Speaker 1: of September. I'm Emma, I'm Chloe. A court case out
Speaker 1: of France has captured the attention of the world these
Speaker 1: last couple of weeks. It's an incredibly disturbing story about
Speaker 1: a seventy one year old woman, her ex husband, and
Speaker 1: fifty other men. For the next three months, Gaselle Pelico
Speaker 1: will sit in a courtroom in Avignon, France, as those
Speaker 1: fifty one men, all but one who are strangers to her,
Speaker 1: face rape charges for alleged crimes against her that she
Speaker 1: has no memory of.
Speaker 2: You've probably seen the headlines, but there's a lot that's
Speaker 2: come out about this case, and there's a lot to come,
Speaker 2: so we want to help you understand the context this
Speaker 2: story today in the Deep Dive. But first, m what's
Speaker 2: making headlines.
Speaker 1: Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore has secured her sixth
Speaker 1: term in office after New South Wales held its local
Speaker 1: council elections over the weekend. Moore first assumed the role
Speaker 1: of Lord Mayor for the City of Sydney in two
Speaker 1: thousand and four. She said she was really delighted about
Speaker 1: the outcome of the election and that it was quote
Speaker 1: a pretty tough campaign and some awful things were said,
Speaker 1: but I'm so encouraged and happy about the city community
Speaker 1: endorsing me.
Speaker 2: A report into the robojet scheme has found twelve current
Speaker 2: and former public servants and former agency heads breached their
Speaker 2: code of conduct on ninety seven occasions. Robodet was a
Speaker 2: government debt collection system used from twenty fifteen to twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2: An illegal automation error resulted in over one point seven
Speaker 2: billion dollars of unlawful debt notices. The Australian Public Service Commissioner,
Speaker 2: who released the findings on Friday, said the scheme was
Speaker 2: a failure of government and apologize for the public services
Speaker 2: role in it.
Speaker 1: A fifty cent public transport fair trial underway in Queensland
Speaker 1: at the moment, will be extended permanently after both major
Speaker 1: parties in the state committed to continuing the cheaper transport
Speaker 1: fares if they win October's election. Queensland Premier Stephen Miles
Speaker 1: said Labour would lock in the fifty cent fairs quote
Speaker 1: forever if they're successful at next month's election. Opposition later
Speaker 1: David Crucifully also announced over the weekend that the LNP
Speaker 1: will extend the current fifty cent fare if there's a
Speaker 1: change of government.
Speaker 2: And today's good news, the US Food and Drug Administration
Speaker 2: the FDA has approved the first over the counter hearing
Speaker 2: a device. The device is compatible with the newest Apple
Speaker 2: Airport's pro which were released last week in the US.
Speaker 2: Acting director for the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health,
Speaker 2: Michelle Tava, so the device is quote another step that
Speaker 2: advances the availability, accessibility, and acceptability of hearing support for adults.
Speaker 1: Gizelle Pelico is the woman at the center of a
Speaker 1: rape trial in France at the moment, she says she
Speaker 1: was raped while unconscious over a period of ten years. Now.
Speaker 1: Her ex husband has admitted to orchestrating the assaults, but
Speaker 1: the global interest in this story has exploded in recent weeks,
Speaker 1: and it's one that we might not actually have ever
Speaker 1: known about or even discussed on this podcast if it
Speaker 1: weren't for Gazelle herself after she explicitly requested the proceedings
Speaker 1: be made public in the hopes of helping other women
Speaker 1: in the future. Chloe, this is an incredibly disturbing case
Speaker 1: and one that you've covered for us on the Daily Os.
Speaker 1: The details are really distressing, as we mentioned at the
Speaker 1: top of the podcast, but central to this story are
Speaker 1: the wishes from Gazelle the alleged victim, to open up
Speaker 1: a conversation about abuse. So let's take it back a
Speaker 1: little bit. Where this case come from. Where does this
Speaker 1: story start?
Speaker 2: So m At the center of this case is Gazelle
Speaker 2: Pellico and Dominique Pellico. They're both seventy one years old.
Speaker 2: They're now separated, but the pair got married when they
Speaker 2: were both twenty one. They have three children and seven grandchildren,
Speaker 2: and they lived together in a small village called Mazan
Speaker 2: in the south of France, and speaking to the court,
Speaker 2: it was Gazelle's understanding that they were a strong couple.
Speaker 2: It was in Mazan that Dominique was initially investigated by
Speaker 2: police when in November twenty twenty, he was caught filming
Speaker 2: up women's skirts at a local supermarket. Police searched Dominique's
Speaker 2: computer and said that they found a folder labeled abuses
Speaker 2: containing over twenty thousand images of an unconscious woman being
Speaker 2: raped by several different men.
Speaker 1: And that woman was Gazelle.
Speaker 2: Correct.
Speaker 1: Okay, So French police were actually investigating Dominique for a
Speaker 1: completely different offense when they discovered all this evidence of
Speaker 1: far more serious crimes. Started as this upskirting case and
Speaker 1: has clearly evolved into something far more sinister.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they inadvertently stumbled upon this footage when they were
Speaker 2: investigating Dominique of separate offenses. And Gizelle said that the
Speaker 2: search of Dominique's computer and those early police investigations is
Speaker 2: what saved her life. She had no memory of the
Speaker 2: rapes and did not recognize any of the men in
Speaker 2: the images that were shown to her by police, and
Speaker 2: that's because her then husband had admitted to drugging her.
Speaker 2: Dominique has pleaded guilty to all the charges against him,
Speaker 2: which includes aggravated rape, drugging, and violating the privacy of
Speaker 2: his wife.
Speaker 1: Okay, so that brings us to the court case that's
Speaker 1: currently playing out. Gizelle was being frequently sedated. She is
Speaker 1: the woman in the images uncovered by police being assaulted
Speaker 1: by several men, but she didn't know about the assaults.
Speaker 1: How has she described her memory of that time?
Speaker 2: This part is pretty distressing. During her testimony, Gazelle recounted
Speaker 2: experiencing total blackouts beginning in twenty eleven. By twenty thirteen,
Speaker 2: she became increasingly worried that she was developing Alzheimer's disease
Speaker 2: due to chronic memory lapses, weight loss, and hair loss.
Speaker 2: She said, I didn't understand why I had these moments
Speaker 2: like this.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's unimaginable to consider that she's going through
Speaker 1: this kind of personal turmoil of a health crisis and
Speaker 1: feeling unwell and having no idea that that was just
Speaker 1: the tip of this horrifying iceberg. What we have learned
Speaker 1: over the course of this case is that the extent
Speaker 1: of abuse against Gizelle was extreme and it was calculated,
Speaker 1: and Dominique, her ex husband, has admitted to that. Can
Speaker 1: you take us through a bit more about the revelations
Speaker 1: from him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this was just the beginning of a lot more
Speaker 2: to come. Dominic did give more details about the abuse
Speaker 2: and so it is very disturbing if you're not in
Speaker 2: the right space to hear it, please just skip ahead.
Speaker 2: Dominique admitted to putting sleeping pills into his wife's evening
Speaker 2: meals to sedate her before raping her and arranging for
Speaker 2: others to rape her from twenty eleven to twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: He told police that while Gazelle was unconscious, he invited
Speaker 2: a number of men to their home to film them
Speaker 2: raping her.
Speaker 1: We've heard that there were several men involved. There are
Speaker 1: dozens of men in this court case who are facing charges.
Speaker 1: What do we know about them? How did they end
Speaker 1: up in Dominique and Gazelle's home? How were they engaged?
Speaker 2: Dominique met most of these men via what is a
Speaker 2: now banned online chat for him called Coco and this
Speaker 2: has been very much on the radar of police for
Speaker 2: quite some time. It's been used in the past to
Speaker 2: coordinate sex crimes and other serious offenses across Europe.
Speaker 1: In terms of the men, is there a specific profile?
Speaker 1: Do we know how old they were?
Speaker 2: After reviewing the footage from Dominique's computer, police made a
Speaker 2: list of eighty three suspects and they've identified and charged fifty.
Speaker 2: The men who allegedly assaulted Gazelle were aged between twenty
Speaker 2: six and seventy.
Speaker 1: Four before we get to what lies ahead for those
Speaker 1: fifty men who have been charged. Dominique, the ex husband
Speaker 1: of the victim, has pleaded guilty to all the charges
Speaker 1: against him. Now, just to recap, that includes aggravated rape, drugging,
Speaker 1: violating the privacy of his wife. There are some other
Speaker 1: violations as well against him.
Speaker 2: What are those so m On top of those charges
Speaker 2: you mentioned, he's also accused of violating the privacy of
Speaker 2: his daughter and two daughters in law after illicit photos
Speaker 2: of them were also found on his devices. For all
Speaker 2: of these crimes, Dominique faces a maximum sentence of twenty
Speaker 2: years in prison. His lawyer described his actions as quote
Speaker 2: a form of addiction, and told reporters that Dominique is
Speaker 2: ashamed of what he did. It is unforgivable.
Speaker 1: When we shared this story on our feed that you
Speaker 1: wrote for us, Chloe, lots of people in the comments
Speaker 1: were really surprised that twenty years is the maximum sentencing
Speaker 1: that he's facing. A lot of outrage people said that
Speaker 1: they didn't feel like it was a severe enough sentence
Speaker 1: for these crimes. Obviously, sentencing is still to come, and
Speaker 1: these are the limitations of the French law. But there
Speaker 1: are fifty other men involved in this case too, so
Speaker 1: what about them.
Speaker 2: So most of the other fifty defendants have been charged
Speaker 2: with aggravated rape and they could also face up to
Speaker 2: twenty years if they're convicted. Many have pleaded not guilty,
Speaker 2: with some saying that they thought they were participating in
Speaker 2: a consensual role playing scenario between the couple where Gazelle
Speaker 2: just pretended to be asleep. Gazelle has disputed those claims,
Speaker 2: saying they knew exactly what they were doing and what
Speaker 2: shape I was in. These videos are scenes of horror
Speaker 2: for me. Similarly, Dominique said everyone knew Gazelle was drugged
Speaker 2: and unconscious, adding that quote every individual had free will
Speaker 2: and could have left the premier.
Speaker 1: So a big part of this story, Chloe, is to
Speaker 1: do with how much of it is in the public domain.
Speaker 1: In many court cases, you know, we often really struggle
Speaker 1: to report on them. Details can be quite limited. Courtrooms
Speaker 1: can be closed, and that's for many reasons, to protect
Speaker 1: identities or because of legal orders. How is it with
Speaker 1: this particular case, a really unique situation, that we have
Speaker 1: so much detailed information.
Speaker 2: You're right, so under French law, complainants have the right
Speaker 2: to remain entirely private during a trial, so we might
Speaker 2: see pseudonyms like John Doe or Jane Doe, and that's
Speaker 2: how we will never know who is behind these cases.
Speaker 2: But instead Gazelle Pelico has insisted on complete total publicity,
Speaker 2: and that's quote from her.
Speaker 1: Has she said why she wants her name published and
Speaker 1: these allegations aired.
Speaker 2: She said to reporters, so when other women wake up
Speaker 2: with no memory, they might remember the testimony of miss
Speaker 2: Now this has been met with widespread support from people
Speaker 2: in France women across the world who have commended Gizelle
Speaker 2: for her bravery. That is not an easy thing to do,
Speaker 2: to put your name to something that is as horrific
Speaker 2: as what we heard in that.
Speaker 1: Trial if we zoom out a little bit, and I
Speaker 1: think this kind of ties in to the outrage about
Speaker 1: maybe current French legislation, that it doesn't go far enough,
Speaker 1: that it's not harsh enough, and what that tells us
Speaker 1: about the country's relationship with women's rights. There's actually another
Speaker 1: quite high profile case in the spotlight in France now,
Speaker 1: specifically about sexual abuse and women's rights. What do we
Speaker 1: know about that story?
Speaker 2: There have been growing calls to change the country's attitudes
Speaker 2: towards sexual violence, notably led by high profile French actor
Speaker 2: Judith god Resh. In February, god Resh, who's fifty one,
Speaker 2: publicly accused of director she worked with at the age
Speaker 2: of fourteen of sexually assaulting her on a film set.
Speaker 2: And there was an opinion piece I read from The
Speaker 2: Washington that was written by a French journalist. Her name
Speaker 2: is Rakaia Dalio. What she was arguing in the piece
Speaker 2: was that France has been slower to embrace the principles
Speaker 2: that we saw in the Me Too movement at the
Speaker 2: end of twenty seventeen. She suggested that the support we've
Speaker 2: seen with god Resch and now what we've seen with
Speaker 2: Pelico quote signaled that perhaps the larger culture here is
Speaker 2: finally ready to push back.
Speaker 1: In practical terms for women in France, what does that
Speaker 1: actually look like, what do they want to change? Specifically?
Speaker 2: It's opened up a conversation about what the French government
Speaker 2: defines as rape. Advocates are pushing French lawmakers to explicitly
Speaker 2: include the concept of consent in the legal definition of rape.
Speaker 2: In March, President Emmanuel Macron expressed his support for this change,
Speaker 2: which could mark a significant step forward in addressing sexual
Speaker 2: violence in the country.
Speaker 1: But it's obviously been a tumultuous year in French politics,
Speaker 1: an election, a change of prime minister, a limp, lots
Speaker 1: going on, and I'm sure a lot of women were
Speaker 1: hopeful after those comments in March from President Macron. And
Speaker 1: maybe now that the Pelico case is dominating global headlines
Speaker 1: that will kind of spur on lawmakers to get this
Speaker 1: done sooner.
Speaker 2: Yeah, give it the momentum it needs.
Speaker 1: Back to this trial, What is ahead? What are the
Speaker 1: next steps?
Speaker 2: The trial will continue and for the next three months
Speaker 2: until December twenty and I'm sure we can expect the
Speaker 2: conversation around this case and women's rights activism in France
Speaker 2: to evolve.
Speaker 1: Chloe, thank you so much for taking us through that today,
Speaker 1: a really distressing but important case. We will pop some
Speaker 1: links in the show notes to support groups. If this
Speaker 1: episode has raised anything for you. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for listening to today's episode of The Daily Os. We
Speaker 1: will be back with another episode tomorrow. Until then, have
Speaker 1: a great day.
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