A disturbing tale from a French village

As if one bizzarro story yesterday - exploding pagers in Lebanon! - were not enough, there was the sensational French rape trial.

A court listened to distressing details of how, over a period of ten years in the sleepy medieval village of Mazan in southwestern France, 71-year old Dominique Pelicot drugged his 72-year old wife of 50 years, Gisèle, and invited in up to 70 men to rape and abuse her, while he videotaped it all.

Pelicot, along with other 50 co-defendants in the case who were all accused of raping Mme Pelicot, freely admitted, "I am a rapist, like the others in this room", and that "I loved her well for 40 years, and badly for 10". 

Gisèle, meanwhile, has become something of a feminist icon and a symbol of resilience and courage for speaking out about her abusive husband. She is suffering from weight, hair and memory loss as a result of the drugs her husband had been feeding her, a husband of whom she says, "I trusted him completely". She was met with spontaneous applause as she exited the court room yesterday.

It is a lurid and disturbing story, and really makes you wonder what happens behind closed doors as you look at your apparently affable and civilized neighbours. It's hard to believe that the village of Mazan will ever quite be the same.