The clock above the cooker had just struck 8. It was November 20, Here began the unveiling of a profound betrayal, which would result in the week trial of Dominique Pelicot and 50 other men, between September and December Dominique was sentenced to 20 years, the maximum penalty.
Four years after she was first shown the evidence of the abuse perpetrated and orchestrated by her husband, she made a public claim on her self worth. She has been lauded worldwide as a feminist hero for refusing anonymity, instead choosing a public trial in which images of her abuse were shown as evidence. And for insisting the shame of abuse must be borne by assailants, not victims. But the book is also a call to action, with an eye on the future.
As a domestic violence researcher, currently undertaking a history of domestic violence in Australia, I know the Pelicot case raises the spectre of a form of violence rarely discussed. This is known in Australia, and other parts of the English-speaking world, as drug-facilitated sexual assault.
Her father used a mixture of sleeping pills and anti-anxiety drugs, prescribed for him. For over half of these victims, their assailants used over-the-counter or prescription drugs. The typical victim was a woman aged between 20 and The only Australian study on drug-facilitated sexual assault, published in , focused on assaults committed by strangers, acquaintances and others who did not live with the victim. So, there is a lack of data. Is it an under-recognised problem in domestic and family violence here?
More research is needed to find out. Much of what we know about ourselves is construed by memory. Our sense of self is built on recollections of long-ago moments, vividly snagged in the maelstrom of consciousness, and our recall of recent experiences: both the ordinary and extraordinary. After that day, she and her mother try to hold onto their sense of who they are, while truths about Dominique flood in.
