The former partner of a co-defendant in a gang rape trial that has sparked horror and protests in France broke down in tears and told a court she may have been sexually assaulted herself.
“I don't know if I was raped,” Emily O. told the criminal court in the southeastern French city of Avignon on Monday. “It's horrible. There will always be doubts.”
Emily O. is the former partner of Hugues M., one of dozens of men accused of raping Gisele Perico while she was drugged unconscious by her ex-husband, Dominique Perico.
The 71-year-old woman, who has admitted inviting strangers into her home and raping them, has been on trial since the beginning of this month along with 50 other men aged between 26 and 74, most of whom deny the charges.
Emily O. said she may have been drugged and sexually assaulted by her former boyfriend, Hugues M. “I was manipulated and lived a lie,” said Emily O., who lived with the man for five years. “I still question everything,” she said, without looking at her ex-boyfriend.
Emily O. looked at Gisele Perico and tears welled up as she recounted her experience. Perico smiled supportively back at Emily. Emily, 33, said she first met Hugues M. online. They both shared a passion for motorbikes.
She described Hugues M. as a polite and caring man, but added that he had been repeatedly unfaithful. He needed “the adrenaline rush that he could only get from riding a motorbike and having sex,” she said.
Emily O. began looking at her life with her ex-partner in a different light after learning of the charges against him in 2021. Her life changed forever when she received a call from Avignon police.
“I was summoned and told that Hugues had raped a woman in October 2019, a few days before my birthday,” she said.
“I didn't believe them. I was stunned and shocked. I asked to see the pictures and then I realised it wasn't a nightmare,” she said.
Hugues M. was charged with “attempted rape” of Gisele Perico. Emily O. told the court she was beginning to have doubts about the entire relationship and thought she may have been treated the same way.
She told the court she woke up one night in 2019 to find her partner trying to assault her. She filed a police report but it was dismissed due to a “lack of physical evidence”.
She also told the court she experienced “dizziness” between September 2019 and March 2020, but investigators did not detect any substances that may have affected her at the time.
Gisele Perico testified that for years she had suffered strange memory problems and other health issues and thought she might have Alzheimer's disease.
On Monday, the Avignon court began examining evidence against five more defendants, including Joan K., the youngest of the 50 co-defendants, who was 22 at the time of the alleged assault.
In one case, the alleged sexual assault of Gisele Perico in 2019, he was not present at the birth of his own daughter, a psychological profiler said in court.
He is accused of raping Gisele Perico during two visits to the couple's home in Mazan. Born in French Guiana, he joined his brother in Avignon at the age of 16 and then joined the army.
Joan K had been in a relationship with a woman he met online, but their time together was characterised by “numerous” conflicts and “extramarital affairs”, the court heard.
At the time of the separation, Joan K's partner was pregnant.
Gisele Perico became an overnight feminist icon and was praised for calling for the trial to be made public to raise awareness of drug-assisted sexual abuse.
Over the weekend, a letter in support of Gisele Perico, signed by more than 200 celebrities, was published in the French daily newspaper Liberation.
