In late September, staff manning 39 19, France’s main anonymous hotline for victims of violence, began noticing a new type of case.
“The caller believes she has been drugged and potentially raped,” a staff member said, detailing one of the many calls she witnessed. She was suspected a few months ago. What happened and all the information about the Mazan trial has helped him put the pieces together.” By Reuters.
The trial, in which Dominique Pellicot admitted to recruiting dozens of men online to drug his wife Gisele and rape her while she was unconscious for more than a decade, is reaching its end. Dozens of decisions are expected on Thursday.
The gang rape trial has shocked France and its implications will be felt far beyond the Avignon courthouse where judges heard and watched more than three months of evidence. Gisele Pellicot, 72, has become a feminist hero both at home and abroad for giving up her right to anonymity and standing up to her abusers in court.
There are also signs that the case is beginning to change social and medical practices in France around drug-assisted sexual assault, according to 10 doctors, social workers and activists who spoke to Reuters Is.
Women’s rights group Solidaríte Fems, which runs the 39 19 hotline, said it had seen a marked increase in women reporting suspected cases of “chemical surrender” – the act of drugging someone without their consent for criminal purposes. – as well as sexual violence. Couple.
“Women refer us to the test, saying it matches their experience,” Mine Gunbe, head of the organization, told Reuters.
To better answer these callers’ new questions, Solidarite Fames organized a training for its phone counselors in early December.
Lucie, who declined to share her full name due to regular threats by 39 19 staff, attended the training in Paris. Among other things, she said she learned that most drug-related assaults occur at home rather than at bars.
They also learned about legal and medical resources available to help suspected victims. Two days later, she was able to direct the caller with her new knowledge.
changes in medical care
The Pellicote trial has also prompted soul-searching among some in the medical community, with doctors trying to deepen their understanding of chemical decapitation.
Doctors failed to identify years of drug and sexual assaults against Gisele Pellicot, who was tested for Alzheimer’s and brain tumors in an attempt to find the cause of mysterious blackouts at her home in the southeastern village of Mazan .
Pharmacist Leila Chouachi, who founded CRAFS, a center that opened this year to provide information to medical staff and potential victims on the issue of drug-facility assaults, said doctors and nurses are eager to improve their knowledge in the wake of the Pellicote case. Were. ,
“We are overwhelmed with training requests from all over the country,” Chouachi said. Training includes understanding what the signs of a drug-induced assault may look like and how to collect drug evidence when possible.
In late November, the government announced measures to ensure that potential victims have better access to testing for the presence of drugs in their systems, partly due to the M’Andors pass (don’t put me to sleep). Via was inspired by the advocacy work of Gisele Pellicot’s daughter. A group he launched last year to raise awareness about drug-related attacks.
An amendment to create a pilot scheme offering free blood tests to people who suspected they had been drugged and assaulted was included in the 2025 budget bill, but it The law failed to pass in the political turmoil that ousted former Prime Minister Michel Barnier earlier this month.
The proposal must now wait for new negotiations on the 2025 budget, which are expected to start in January. But the measures already adopted are proof of the impact of the Pellicot case on French attitudes toward drug-facility attacks, said Christine Louis-Vahdat, representative of the French Medical Association.
“Without testing, it probably would have taken longer to get the money,” he said.
Lewis-Vahdat said the proposed measure, which could be expanded in the future, would be an important step forward in ensuring doctors have the means to catch cases of drug-facilitated assault.
“The test has highlighted the lack of equipment doctors have,” he said.
The case has also inspired academic research. Doctors at Geneva University Hospital recently included the chemical submission in an ongoing study on sexual abuse cases after receiving data requests from journalists covering the trials.
“I hope this lawsuit will be the point of no return,” Chouachi said.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
