Gisèle Pelicot’s daughter has revealed the alleged devastating six-word remark her mother made during the proceedings against Dominique Pelicot.
This widely-discussed case brought to light that Gisèle was drugged against her will and sexually assaulted multiple times by her former husband, Dominique Pelicot, over the course of nearly ten years.
He is accused of placing sleeping pills and other substances into her meals and inviting men from the internet into their home to violate her while she was unconscious, acts which he recorded and stored on a hard drive labeled ‘abuse’.
Pelicot confessed to drugging his wife of five decades and was found guilty of the attempted aggravated rape of the wife of one of his co-defendants, as well as taking inappropriate pictures of his daughter, Caroline Darian, and his daughters-in-law.
He is currently incarcerated, serving a 20-year prison sentence.
A panel of five judges in France reached their verdicts in December last year for the numerous men accused of aggravated rape and sexual assault on Gisèle. At that time, Darian expressed to the judge: “I’m a forgotten victim in this case.”
Earlier this year, it was disclosed that the daughter was also pursuing charges against her father, including allegations of drugging and raping her.
“I know that he drugged me, probably for sexual abuse. But I don’t have any evidence,” she stated to the BBC.
Pelicot has refuted the allegations made by his daughter, and Darian maintains that her mother never believed her.
In a recent conversation with The Telegraph, Darian shared a poignant six-word phrase her mother supposedly uttered during Pelicot’s trial.
“You know what my mum said to me a couple of times in the courtyard outside during the trial? ‘Stop making a spectacle of yourself,'” Darwin recounted.
“Right there is the difference between her and me,” she further explained.
In her new book, as seen by The Telegraph, Darwin elaborated that the public persona her mother has adopted ‘doesn’t have anything to do with me’.
She added: “What I’m trying to say is that my mother isn’t an icon – not to me.”
During her interview with The Telegraph, Darian disclosed that she no longer communicates with Gisèle due to a specific incident.
“My mother let go of my hand in that courtroom,” she stated. “She abandoned me.
“For four years I accompanied my mum everywhere. I supported her without ever judging her. And it wasn’t always easy because she didn’t want to hear what I was telling her about Dominique.
“But in that courtroom, she was supposed to help me.
“And that I can never forgive her for. Never.”
If you’ve been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can contact The National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800.656.HOPE (4673), available 24/7. Or you can chat online via online.rainn.org