Intimate images appeared for the first time on the screens at the Avignon courthouse on Wednesday, September 18, and the realities of the Pelicot trial began to fully sink in. Each time one of the 35 co-defendants (out of 51) contesting the rape charges against him will take the stand over the coming weeks, videos of the scenes in question filmed by Dominique Pelicot and on which the accusation is based will be broadcast, promising days of difficult hearings.

Prior to this long and dark tunnel, two defense lawyers had obtained that some pictures of Gisèle Pelicot be shown in court. The images were extracted from a hard drive belonging to her husband. The lawyers argued that they would be "useful in revealing the truth." As Gisèle Pelicot took the stand on Wednesday afternoon, her daughter Caroline, who supports her every day, left the courtroom at her mother's request. And 27 photos were shown in silence: Gisèle Pelicot naked and visibly conscious, in lascivious positions, close-ups of her crotch.

Gisèle Pelicot said she has no recollection of these snapshots – taken, she claimed, without her knowledge or when she was sedated by her husband – but she clearly understood the maneuver: "They're trying to trap me with these photos, they want to show that I baited these individuals into my home and that I was consenting."

"I can see that Mrs. Pelicot is awake, you can see her smiling," said Isabelle Crépin-Dehaene, the defense attorney who initiated the broadcast. "Not all women would accept this type of photo. They show that there was a request from the husband that the wife was perfectly aware of. I deduce that the Pelicot couple played a sexual game of their own."

Crépin-Dehaene suggested that some of the photos may have been used by Dominique Pelicot to lure men into his home, to whom he would offer his previously drugged wife in their bedroom. "Perhaps these photos could have legitimately made the man recruited on the internet believe that madame was eager for sexual play and consenting to a threesome."

Gisèle Pelicot struggled to maintain her composure: "I baited, I pretended, I was drunk, I was an accomplice... It takes a hell of a lot of patience to put up with everything I've heard. Now they're showing these photos taken without my knowledge. In fact I'm the guilty one, is that right?" The defense felt the need to respond: "Let me reassure you, this is absolutely not your trial." "It is a little bit," Gisèle Pelicot replied.

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