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Speaker 1: Dusta heads up.

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Speaker 2: Today's episode discusses sexual abuse and distressing themes already.

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Speaker 1: And this is the Daily ar.

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Speaker 2: This is the Daily ohs oh, now it makes sense.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Monday,

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Speaker 2: the thirteenth of January.

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Speaker 1: I'm Emma, i'm zara.

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Speaker 2: Last year, the story of a French rape case and

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Speaker 2: the woman at its center, Gazelle Pelico, captured global attention.

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Speaker 2: Her ex husband, Dominique Pelico, pleaded guilty to charges relating

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Speaker 2: to drugging, raping, and inviting others to rape Gazelle over

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Speaker 2: the course of a decade. After months of hearings and

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Speaker 2: a trial that included dozens of other men, Dominique Pelico

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Speaker 2: was sentenced to twenty years in jail. In December, fifty

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Speaker 2: others were found guilty of varying charges, including rape, attempted rape,

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Speaker 2: and sexual assault. Now this story is back in the

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Speaker 2: headlines after the founder of a website that Jellico used

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Speaker 2: to recruit other men to rape his wife while sedated

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Speaker 2: was charged by French police.

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Speaker 3: And this is a story that I think has stuck

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Speaker 3: with so many people. It was so traumatizing, so distressing

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Speaker 3: to learn about. But there have been quite a few

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Speaker 3: updates since we last spoke about it on the pod.

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Speaker 3: Can you just remind us of the key aspects of

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Speaker 3: this story before we go on to what's making headlines currently.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and to understand the context of what's currently happening

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Speaker 2: on this website and its role in the trial, we

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Speaker 2: need to take it back to the start anyway, So

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Speaker 2: you might remember in September last year, the world became

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Speaker 2: captivated by this harrowing story, a story of a seventy

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Speaker 2: two year old French woman, Gazelle Pellico. Now, when she

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Speaker 2: was twenty one, Gazelle married a man called Dominique. They

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Speaker 2: went on to have three children together several grandchildren, and

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Speaker 2: they lived in a small village called Mazan in the

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Speaker 2: south of France. In November twenty twenty, police there began

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Speaker 2: investigating Dominique Pelico after he was caught filming up women's

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Speaker 2: skirts at a local supermarket. It was this investigation that

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Speaker 2: led police to a search of his computer, and that's

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Speaker 2: where they found a folder labeled Abuses, which contained over

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Speaker 2: twenty thousand images of one unconscious woman being raped by

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Speaker 2: several different men.

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Speaker 3: And that woman was, of course, Gazelle, who had been

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Speaker 3: his wife for decades.

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Speaker 1: As you said, exactly what happened from here.

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Speaker 3: The police weren't even looking for this, they were there

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Speaker 3: for another reason. What happened after they uncovered this file.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, as you mentioned, it was kind of an

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Speaker 2: inadvertent discovery, and Gazelle attributes that computer search to basically

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Speaker 2: saving her life. She had no memory of the rapes,

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Speaker 2: she didn't recognize the men in the images shown to her,

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Speaker 2: but that investigation led to her then husband, Dominique, being

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Speaker 2: charged with several offenses, including aggravated rape, drugging, violating the

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Speaker 2: privacy of his wife, all of which he pled guilty too.

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Speaker 2: And after reviewing that footage sees from his computer, police

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Speaker 2: made a list of eighty three suspects. They identified and

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Speaker 2: charged fifty, all men who assaulted Gazelle aged between twenty

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Speaker 2: six and seventy four.

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Speaker 3: So there are two I think deeply sinister parts to

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Speaker 3: this story. The first, of course, is that the ex

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Speaker 3: husband of Gazelle admitted to drugging and then raping his

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Speaker 3: then wife. But the other part is, as you just said,

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Speaker 3: that there were men of all sorts of backgrounds, all

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Speaker 3: sorts of occupations, all different ages who were also involved

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Speaker 3: in this case. All of this was orchestrated by Dominique.

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Speaker 3: What do we know about how he was able to

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Speaker 3: do that, How he was able to connect all of

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Speaker 3: these different men in this one way.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so Dominique met most of these men via an

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Speaker 2: online chat forum and this is really integral to the

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Speaker 2: story that he is in the news now this month

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Speaker 2: that we'll talk about the chat four um called Coco

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Speaker 2: that was actually banned about six months ago. But it's

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Speaker 2: a notorious website that had been used to coordinate sex

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Speaker 2: crimes and other serious offenses.

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Speaker 1: Right across Europe.

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Speaker 2: So that's where Dominique would connect with these men in

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Speaker 2: a chat room, and he told the court basically he

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Speaker 2: would arrange these meetups, put sleeping pills into his wife's

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Speaker 2: dinner to sedate her before raping her, or inviting other

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Speaker 2: men who he met online on that website Coco, to

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Speaker 2: come to the couple's home and rape Gazelle.

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Speaker 3: I want to talk more about that website in a bit,

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Speaker 3: But the last update of twenty twenty four was that

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Speaker 3: Dominique was sentenced. Can you just quickly provide an update

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Speaker 3: on that.

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Speaker 2: So all men on trial, including Dominique were found guilty.

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Speaker 2: He received the maximum sentence of twenty years. The other

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Speaker 2: men were sentenced to prison terms of between five and

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Speaker 2: fifteen years. There was also a man involved in the case.

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Speaker 2: His name was Jean Pierre Mareschal, who said he met

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Speaker 2: and was inspired by Dominique online through that website Coco,

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Speaker 2: and he was found guilty of drugging and raping his

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Speaker 2: own wife. At the same trial, that man was sentenced

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Speaker 2: to twelve years in prison. Dominique was also found guilty

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Speaker 2: of the attempted rape of that man's wife. Speaking outside

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Speaker 2: court after the sentencing, Gazelle said, I would like to

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Speaker 2: express my profound gratitude towards everyone who has supported me.

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Speaker 2: When I opened the doors to this trial, I wanted

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Speaker 2: all of society to be a witness to the debates

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Speaker 2: that took place here. I have never regretted that decision,

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Speaker 2: which speaks to this really interesting aspect of the story,

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Speaker 2: which is about the fact that we might not have

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Speaker 2: ever heard about it if it wasn't for Jazelle Pelico

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Speaker 2: specifically choosing to open up these proceedings. Under French law,

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Speaker 2: actually complainants have a right to remain private during a trial,

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Speaker 2: but she insisted on this complete publicity, and that's all

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Speaker 2: about her support and advocacy for victim survivors. I think

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Speaker 2: she's really become the face of that advocacy in France,

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Speaker 2: and we've heard a sentiment on going from her ever

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Speaker 2: since about you know, putting her story into the world

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Speaker 2: in the hopes that it will help others.

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Speaker 3: I think that we could do a whole podcast on

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Speaker 3: the strength of Gazelle and the difference that she has

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Speaker 3: made to so many people's lives. Despite the utter devastation

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Speaker 3: that she herself has faced, she has somehow found a

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Speaker 3: way to inspire so many around the world, not just

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Speaker 3: in France. I want to turn back to something that

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Speaker 3: you mentioned earlier, which was that these men were all

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Speaker 3: on the same website, and this website was able to

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Speaker 3: exist until just six months ago.

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Speaker 1: What do we know about Coco that website.

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Speaker 2: Yes, so this chat room was used in recruiting the men,

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Speaker 2: as you mentioned, who committed these assaults against Gizelle Pellico,

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Speaker 2: but it was shut down in June last year, and

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Speaker 2: that followed an eighteen month long international investigation led by

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Speaker 2: French police of Coco, not in relation to the Pelico case,

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Speaker 2: but just broadly in relation to the notorious activity that

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Speaker 2: it had been rumored was going on on that website. So,

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Speaker 2: according to a statement from the Paris Public Prosecutor's office,

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Speaker 2: investigators actually found evidence connecting the chat room to more

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Speaker 2: than twenty thousand cases, relating to nearly five hundred alleged victims.

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Speaker 2: So these findings related to offenses including child sexual abuse, murder, rape,

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Speaker 2: drug trafficking, all alleged to have taken place between twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty one and twenty twenty four in France. So following

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Speaker 2: that investigation, authorities demanded the site be closed. That's why

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Speaker 2: it was shut down before the Pelico trial began in September.

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Speaker 2: And now its founder, a man called Isaac Steel, has

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Speaker 2: been charged in relation to the platform.

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Speaker 1: And who is this man Isaac Steel?

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Speaker 2: So he's a forty four year old Italian national. He

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Speaker 2: actually grew up in the south of France but has

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Speaker 2: been living in Bulgaria. His home was searched in Bulgaria

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Speaker 2: at the request of French officials during that eighteen month

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Speaker 2: long investigation into Coco, but he wasn't arrested concerning those

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Speaker 2: inquiries and hill last week so on Thursday he was

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Speaker 2: taken into custody in France and charged with several offenses

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Speaker 2: relating to organized crime, drug trafficking, child sexual abuse and

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Speaker 2: administering an online platform to facilitate illegal transactions. Now he

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Speaker 2: has since been released from police custody. He was granted

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Speaker 2: bail for one hundred thousand euros that's about one hundred

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Speaker 2: and sixty six thousand Aussie dollars, so he's no longer

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Speaker 2: in attention, but he has been banned from leaving France

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Speaker 2: as these inquiries continue. He's expected to plead not guilty

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Speaker 2: to the charges, though, and that's after his lawyer spoke

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Speaker 2: to French media saying that Steve Or firmly denies the

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Speaker 2: accusations made against him and plans to cooperate fully to

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Speaker 2: prove his innocence. So now we kind of await a

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Speaker 2: formal plea to be entered and this could very well

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Speaker 2: become the next chapter of this story, or you know,

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Speaker 2: the next French trial that will capture the world's attention.

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Speaker 3: What I find fascinating is that, you know, actual violence

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Speaker 3: is not a new thing, and it's pervasive. It doesn't

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Speaker 3: discriminate geographically, no matter what and at every time and place.

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Speaker 3: But what's so interesting is now there's this new frontier

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Speaker 3: and the way that technology can potentially enable this sort

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Speaker 3: of behavior, and how authorities will be able to keep

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Speaker 3: up the fact that this website was only closed down

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Speaker 3: six months ago, I think shows the way in which

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Speaker 3: we still have to transform and develop in order to

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Speaker 3: keep up with these changes.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, and especially in a place like France, a country

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Speaker 2: that had been previously criticized for being slow to the

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Speaker 2: uptake of the Me Too movement. It's been criticized for

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Speaker 2: its sexual violence laws. There's certainly a sense on social

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Speaker 2: media that there's all of this momentum for change, even

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Speaker 2: at a government level. You know, the French government has

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Speaker 2: launched this awareness campaign about helping victim survivors and potential

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Speaker 2: victims understand the signs of being drugged. There's been discussions

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Speaker 2: about expanding the lead definition of rape in France, which

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Speaker 2: currently lacks clarity around consent, and the French President, Emmanuel

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Speaker 2: Macron has expressed his support for changing that. And so,

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Speaker 2: you know, all of this combined kind of marks this

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Speaker 2: significant step towards addressing sexual violence in a country where

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Speaker 2: you could argue, you know, it hasn't been something that

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Speaker 2: has been spoken about freely and publicly in such a way.

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Speaker 3: There are always moments that can ignite a national or

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Speaker 3: indeed a global discussion. But whether or not this case

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Speaker 3: and the strength of Giselle Pellico is able to create

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Speaker 3: meaningful change, I think is something that will all be

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Speaker 3: waiting to see and keeping a keen eye on. As

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Speaker 3: m you mentioned at the top, this is a highly

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Speaker 3: distressing case and a highly distressing topic. So if today's

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Speaker 3: episode did raise any concerns for you, you can contact

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Speaker 3: one eight hundred Respect on one eight hundred seven three

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Speaker 3: seven seven three to two.

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Speaker 1: You can also head to one eight hundred.

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Speaker 3: Respect dot org dot au for resources and support. Take

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Speaker 3: care of yourself and we'll be back again this afternoon.

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Speaker 3: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda

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Speaker 3: Bungelung Kalkadoon woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges

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Speaker 3: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the

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Speaker 3: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and torrest

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Speaker 3: Rate island and nations. We pay our respects to the

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Speaker 3: first peoples of these countries, both past and present,