- Ireland centre Henshaw signs IRFU contract extension
- Bangladesh launches $5bn graft probe into Hasina's family
- US probes China chip industry on 'anticompetitive' concerns
- Biden commutes sentences for 37 of 40 federal death row inmates
- Clock ticks down on France government nomination
- Mozambique on edge as judges rule on disputed election
- Mobile cinema brings Tunisians big screen experience
- Honda and Nissan to launch merger talks
- Police arrest suspect who set woman on fire in New York subway
- China vows 'cooperation' over ship linked to severed Baltic Sea cables
- Australian tennis star Purcell provisionally suspended for doping
- Luxury Western goods line Russian stores, three years into sanctions
- Wallace and Gromit return with comic warning about AI dystopia
- Philippine military says will acquire US Typhon missile system
- Afghan bread, the humble centrepiece of every meal
- Honda and Nissan expected to begin merger talks
- 'Draconian' Vietnam internet law heightens free speech fears
- Israeli women mobilise against ultra-Orthodox military exemptions
- Asian markets track Wall St rally as US inflation eases rate worries
- Tens of thousands protest in Serbian capital over fatal train station accident
- Trump vows to 'stop transgender lunacy' as a top priority
- 'Who's next?': Misinformation and online threats after US CEO slaying
- Only 12 trucks delivered food, water in North Gaza Governorate since October: Oxfam
- Langers edge Tiger and son Charlie in PNC Championship playoff
- Explosive batsman Jacobs gets New Zealand call-up for Sri Lanka series
- Holders PSG edge through on penalties in French Cup
- Daniels throw five TDs as Commanders down Eagles
- Atalanta fight back to take top spot in Serie A, Roma hit five
- Mancini admits regrets over leaving Italy for Saudi Arabia
- Run machine Ayub shines as Pakistan sweep South Africa
- Slovak PM Fico on surprise visit to Kremlin
- 'Incredible' Liverpool must stay focused: Slot
- Maresca 'absolutely happy' as title-chasing Chelsea drop points in Everton draw
- Salah happy wherever career ends after inspiring Liverpool rout
- Three and easy as Dortmund move into Bundesliga top six
- Liverpool hit Spurs for six, Man Utd embarrassed by Bournemouth
- Netanyahu vows to act with 'force, determination' against Yemen's Huthis
- Ali hat-trick helps champions Ahly crush Belouizdad
- Salah stars as rampant Liverpool hit Spurs for six
- Syria's new leader says all weapons to come under 'state control'
- 'Sonic 3' zips to top of N.America box office
- Rome's Trevi Fountain reopens to limited crowds
- Mbappe strikes as Real Madrid down Sevilla
- Pope again condemns 'cruelty' of Israeli strikes on Gaza
- Lonely this Christmas: Vendee skippers in low-key celebrations on high seas
- Troubled Man Utd humiliated by Bournemouth
- 2 US pilots shot down over Red Sea in 'friendly fire' incident: military
- Man Utd embarrassed by Bournemouth, Chelsea held at Everton
- France awaits fourth government of the year
- Death toll in Brazil bus crash rises to 41
French woman says uncovering of mass rape trauma 'saved her life'
A French woman whose husband is accused of enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged told his trial on Thursday that police had saved her by uncovering the crimes.
"The police saved my life by investigating Mister P.'s computer", Gisele P. told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband -- one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial.
Gisele P., now 71, had remained stoic and silent through the three first days of the high-profile case, communicating only through her lawyers.
But she revealed her emotion on the stand on Thursday when she recounted the moment in November 2020 when investigators first showed her the images of a decade of sexual abuse orchestrated and filmed by her husband Dominique P.
"My world is falling apart. For me, everything is falling apart. Everything I have built up over 50 years," Gisele P. said.
"Frankly, these are scenes of horror for me," she said of the pictures, while her husband listened with his head bowed.
"I'm lying motionless on the bed, being raped," added the woman of the "barbaric" footage.
"They treat me like a rag doll," she told a panel of five judges, adding that she had only plucked up the courage to watch the footage in May 2024.
"Don't talk to me about sex scenes. These are rape scenes," she said, stressing that she had never practised swinging or any other form of libertine sex.
Lawyers for some of the defendants questioned on Wednesday whether the couple had had a libertine relationship, or whether it was credible that Gisele P. had noticed nothing for the entire decade of the abuse.
The line of questioning appeared to upset the plaintiff, although she stayed put when her three children briefly left the courtroom in disgust.
"Of course she was offended," said her lawyer, Antoine Camus.
"She wanted to respond. We felt her bobbing up and down behind us, saying, 'I want to answer. I just have to answer' and we told her, 'Tomorrow!'"
Gisele P. has insisted that the trial take place in public so the full facts of the case can emerge.
Nevertheless, there will be "extremely difficult moments" for her as she testifies, said Stephane Babonneau, her other lawyer.
- Detailed records -
Gisele P.'s husband, Dominique, is accused of abusing his wife between 2011 and 2020, drugging her with sleeping pills and then recruiting dozens of strangers to rape her, lead investigator Jeremie Bosse Platiere told the court on Wednesday.
Dominique P. was exposed by chance when he was caught filming up women's skirts in a local supermarket.
On Tuesday, he answered "yes" when asked if he was guilty of the accusations against him.
The 71-year-old father of three documented his actions with meticulous precision on a hard drive with a folder labelled "abuse".
That enabled French police to track down more than 50 men suspected of raping Gisele P. while she was drugged.
A third of them were identified using facial recognition software, Bosse Platiere said.
The senior police chief for the Hautes-Alpes region said he had hand-picked investigators "who had the stomach" to face videos and images of abuse.
Police drew up a list of 72 individuals suspected of abusing Gisele P.
The investigators counted around 200 instances of rape, most of them by Dominique P., and over 90 by strangers enlisted through an adult website.
The assaults took place between July 2011 and October 2020, mainly in the couple's home in Mazan, a village of 6,000 people in the southern region of Provence.
Most of the suspects face up to 20 years in jail for aggravated rape if convicted.
Eighteen of the 51 accused are in custody, including Dominique P.
Thirty-two other defendants are attending the trial as free men.
The last suspect, still at large, will be tried in absentia.
The trial is expected to last four months until December 20 -- "a totally awful ordeal" for Gisele P., Camus said.
"For the first time, she will have to live through the rapes to which she was subjected for 10 years", of which she has "no memory", he told AFP.
siu-ol-sjw-tgb/as/gil
A.Magalhes--PC