World
Mass rape trial lays bare France's disturbing culture of sexual assault, critics allege
WARNING: Content in the following story may be disturbing for some readers.
A mass-rape trial in France has exposed what many have called a “rape culture” that has run rampant in the country.
“Today I maintain that, along with the other men here, I am a rapist,″ Dominique Pélicot, 71, said during a court appearance on Tuesday. “They knew everything. They can’t say otherwise.”
Gisèle Pélicot, 72, alleged that her husband had drugged her and allowed dozens of men to sexually abuse her over nearly a decade between 2011 and 2020 while the couple lived in the small town of Mazan. Dominique Pélicot admitted to the crime in addition to filming the assaults.
His decision to forego anonymity in the trial is unprecedented and has taken many by surprise, but he stands by his conviction that he must face his crimes.
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“One is not born a pervert. One becomes a pervert,” he told the court, claiming he had been raped by a male nurse in a hospital when he was nine years old and then forced to participate in a gang rape at 14.
Gisèle Pélicot, 72, alleged that her husband had drugged her and allowed dozens of men to sexually abuse her over nearly a decade. (Christophe Simon/AFP via Getty Images)
“From my youth, I remember only shocks and traumas, forgotten partly thanks to her. She did not deserve this, I acknowledge it,” he said of his wife. If convicted, Dominique Pélicot faces 20 years in prison.
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He now stands trial along with around 50 other men that authorities have identified and arrested through matching the media provided by Dominique Pélicot — many of whom have denied the allegations brought against them.
Dominique Pélicot’s testimony stirred media attention due to the shocking nature of his crime. He spoke for an hour while confined to a wheelchair following some health complications due to a kidney stone and urinary infection.
Dominique Pélicot stands trial along with around 50 other men. (Christophe Simon/AFP via Getty Images)
The court proceedings cannot be filmed or photographed, per French law, and Dominique Pélicot enters and leaves the court through a special entrance inaccessible to the media as he and some other defendants remain in custody during the trial.
The other defendants instead claim they were manipulated by the husband or believed she had consented to the act.
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Dominique Pélicot first crossed law enforcement after they caught him taking photos of women’s crotches at a supermarket. An investigation uncovered the trove of thousands of pictures and videos that depicted the assaults on his wife.
The couple remained married for 50 years until the attacks came to light and police shared the media with Gisèle Pélicot, who called the revelation “unbearable.” The couple had three children together.
A mass-rape trial in France has exposed what many have called a “rape culture” that has run rampant in the country. (Christophe Simon/AFP via Getty Images)
“For me, everything collapses,” Gisèle Pélicot testified. “These are scenes of barbarity, of rape.”
French authorities have determined that a total of roughly 72 men participated in the decadelong rape scheme. Their ages range from 26 to 68 and come from a variety of backgrounds, including firefighters, journalists and pharmacists, according to the BBC.
The Fondation des Femmes told NBC News that the trial is a “symbol of the worst that male violence can do,” describing the crimes against Gisèle Pélicot as “barbaric” and her decision to publicly testify as brave.
“It is not for myself that I am testifying, but for all the women who suffer chemical submission,” Gisèle Pélicot said during her testimony.
Céline Piques of the group Osez le Féminisme has argued that this case counters the narrative of “the rapist who is a psychopath” who “raped because they were sure of their impurity.”
Piques pointed to the website that Dominique Pélicot used to invite men to his home, which had over 500,000 visitors a month last year, noting that “100% of these people… never made a phone call to stop this abuse.”
“Not one man thought about informing the police of these criminal facts,” Piques said.
Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Israel and Hamas on the ‘brink’ of a truce
Israel and Hamas are close to a deal on a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of hostages there, Antony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, said yesterday. “It’s closer than it’s ever been before,” he said. “But right now as we sit here we await final word from Hamas on its acceptance. And until we get that word, we’ll remain on the brink.”
Negotiators said Hamas seemed ready to accept the deal, including its details about the exchange of Palestinian prisoners for hostages and the specific movements of Israeli troops as they withdraw from positions in Gaza, a person familiar with the talks said last night.
The person said Israel was also locked in on the agreement, and that both sides seemed prepared to announce their acceptance of it in the very near future. Neither Israeli nor Hamas officials have publicly confirmed their positions. Here’s what we know about the proposal.
Gaza: An analysis in The Lancet found that Palestinian deaths from bombs and other traumatic injuries may have been undercounted by 40 percent during the first nine months of the war.
South Korea’s president was detained for questioning
Yoon Suk Yeol today became the first sitting South Korean president to be detained for questioning by criminal investigators, after striking a deal with law enforcement officials that ended a weekslong standoff. He has been accused of insurrection in connection with his short-lived declaration of martial law last month.
In a video message, Yoon said he had agreed to submit to questioning to prevent a “bloody” clash between his bodyguards and the police. But he called the investigation and the warrant to detain him illegal. Here’s what to know about South Korea’s leadership crisis.
Investigators have 48 hours to question Yoon, after which they could apply for a separate warrant to formally arrest him. Separately, the Constitutional Court is deliberating whether the National Assembly’s Dec. 14 impeachment of Yoon was legitimate and whether the president, currently suspended, should be permanently removed from office.
Republicans embraced Hegseth’s bid to lead the Pentagon
Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, emerged from a tense confirmation hearing yesterday with the Republican Party’s support intact. A Senate vote on whether he should lead the Pentagon — a department with three million employees and a budget of $849 billion — could come as soon as Monday.
Over hours of questioning, Democrats quizzed Hegseth about sexual misconduct allegations — Hegseth was accused of rape in 2017 — and his drinking habits. They called him unfit to lead the Pentagon and grilled Hegseth, a former Fox News host, on his long history of disparaging comments about women in the military.
What’s next: It was unclear whether Hegseth had left the hearing with the votes he needed. If all Senate Democrats oppose him, Hegseth will have to secure the backing of at least 50 of the 53 Republicans in the chamber.
Related: A report was released yesterday that detailed the special counsel’s investigation into Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election. Here are four takeaways.
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Suspended South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has reportedly been arrested over insurrection charges stemming from his ill-fated martial law declaration last month.
Yoon’s detention was reported Wednesday by Yonhap, one of the country’s largest news outlets. A warrant for his arrest, initially requested after he failed to show up for questioning, has been out since Dec. 31.
Police dispatched some 3,200 officers to the president’s sprawling hillside estate in Seoul, according to Reuters, where he has spent weeks in hiding whilst surrounded by a personal security detail.
Video shows officers closing in on Yoon’s residence, according to Reuters, where hundreds of his supporters had already gathered to protest on his behalf. Earlier, they were reportedly seen pushing through a group of them.
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A previous attempt to detain Yoon was called off on Jan. 3 following a six-hour standoff between military guards and the president’s security staff.
“As I have repeatedly emphasized the need for prevention of physical conflict between state agencies,” Acting President Choi Sang-mok said in a statement Wednesday. “I will sternly hold those responsible if unfortunate events occur.”
Authorities are making a second attempt to detain suspended South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol following last month’s martial law declaration. (South Korea Presidential Office via AP, File)
Executing a warrant for Yoon’s arrest has proven difficult for investigators, as the president’s legal counsel insists it is impossible to do so under a law barring non-consensual searches of locations potentially linked to military secrets.
Yoon’s lawyers have also decried such a warrant as an illegal means of publicly humiliating him.
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The arrest warrant is the first ever to be levied against a sitting South Korean president. Yoon’s warrant stems from his declaration of martial law on Dec. 3 out of apparent frustration with the opposition-dominated parliament’s refusal to pass key items on his political agenda.
The move was decried within South Korea and abroad, where analysts expressed shock at the sudden and unprecedented move in what is typically one of Asia’s most stable democracies.
Police officers are seen closing in on suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol’s residence in Seoul, South Korea, alongside investigators of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials. (REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji)
Parliament unanimously rejected Yoon’s declaration, and subsequently suspended him on Dec. 14 in a 204-85 vote that included members of his own party.
Yoon will be formally impeached should the Constitutional Court uphold the motion with a three-fourths majority.
The court’s next hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Over two-thirds of large companies struggle to fill their IT roles. What are the highest-paid jobs? Which countries are most in need?
As the IT sector continues to grow, thousands of European companies are having trouble filling the many positions available.
According to 2024 Eurostat data, 57.5% of EU businesses can’t recruit all the necessary ICT specialists.
The gap between labour demand and actual employment has grown by 20% in the past ten years.
Large businesses are facing the biggest challenges.
Sixty-eight per cent of them are unable to fill all their ICT specialist positions, followed by medium (59.2%) and small-sized enterprises (53.4%).
Germany, the Czech Republic, Malta, Austria, and Luxembourg are the countries most in need of ICT specialists, with at least 65% of businesses facing shortages.
The percentages are even higher for large enterprises: 84% in Malta, 80% in Germany, 79% in the Czech Republic, 78% in Slovenia, 76% in Austria, 75% in Luxembourg, 73% in Latvia, 72% in Hungary and 71% in Croatia.
Spain, Poland, and Bulgaria have the least hiring problems, although at least 30% of companies in these countries still face ICT shortages.
What are the highest-paid IT positions?
The main difficulties in recruitment, according to Eurostat, are a lack of applications, insufficient qualifications and experience, and high salary expectations.
Salaries in the ICT sector have consistently outpaced average wages in Europe in the last decade, according to the 2024 OECD Digital Economy Outlook. In the EU, in particular, annual wages grew by 0.24% compared to 0.20% in the rest of the economy.
Recruitment specialists Robert Walters have listed the top-paid ICT jobs in countries including Germany, which seems to be struggling the most in the EU to recruit specialists.
The highest-paid role is Chief Information Technology Officer, with an annual base of €150k for employees with at least three years of experience, to €180k for those with at least eight years.
The consultancy role in the highest bracket is the SAP/ERP one, with a base of €100k. (SAP ERP is an enterprise resource planning software.)
Data engineer and data scientist positions are both in the €100-120k bracket.
Video editor • Mert Can Yilmaz
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