Calls increase at France's new helpline after the verdict of Gisele Pelicot mass rape trial

euronews (in English)

The platform to help victims who believe they have been drugged then assaulted was created two months amid the trauma of a mass trial that shook France and the rest of the world.

Transcript

00:00Have you contacted us in case of a suspicion of chemical submission?

00:05Yes? Are you available? Can we talk together?

00:08It's one of the numerous ripple effects following the Mazan mass rape trial that shocked the world.

00:14Since the verdict last week, calls have been multiplying at the center located in a Paris hospital

00:20where specialists help victims who, just like Giselle Pellicot, have been drugged and then assaulted.

00:26In the context you describe, there are signs that can alert you.

00:30You have to be extremely vigilant.

00:38We have no right to touch you.

00:40That's how it is.

00:42There is no violation permit or assault permit. It doesn't exist.

00:46Victims then can have their hair analyzed for traces of drugs.

01:03Another striking consequence of the Pellicot trial,

01:07an unprecedented wave of calls from professionals to doctors to judges to NGOs.

01:15In the context of the Mazan rape trial,

01:18there is the over-mobilization of health professionals

01:21who are shocked by the fact that this victim was in a state of error for such a long time

01:27with symptoms she described, which she complained about,

01:30but which had not been identified as potentially being an administration of harmful substances.

01:35The intellectual honesty of the professionals was to recognize that they themselves would have missed it

01:41and that if there is nothing more worrisome for a professional,

01:45it is a phobic reaction they had to miss a similar case.

01:49And so that's why we are particularly asked for training to improve their skills.

01:56The French government promised it would launch reforms to help people

02:00who fear they've been drugged and then raped, including state-funded test kits.

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