During research, the US news channel CNN came across Telegram groups in which members supported each other in drugging and raping their partners.
Trigger warning: The following text deals with sexual violence and could be distressing.
The Pelicot case shocked the public in all its cruelty around two years ago. The French woman Gisèle Pelicot was drugged by her husband for years and then raped by dozens of men. The strength with which the now 73-year-old appeared in the subsequent trial and looked her tormentors in the eyes impressed the public. “Shame must change sides,” demanded Pelicot during the trial – a quote that went around the world and spoke from the hearts of thousands of women and those affected by sexual violence.
«She broke the silence and the shame. If she can do it, I can do it too,” said Amanda Stanhope from Wigan in northwest England. She was also a victim of her husband, who raped her several times in her sleep and while under the influence of medication over a period of five years. The Englishwoman reported this to CNN. After she plucked up the courage to report her then partner to the police – using video footage he had created of her – the police initially turned her away. “They told me it wasn’t clear evidence because on the video it looked like I was just pretending to be asleep,” the sexual violence survivor told CNN.