The pivotal 1970s trial that rewrote France's definition of rape

Women's rights groups rally outside the courthouse in Aix-en-Provence in southern France on 2 May 1978, at the opening of a landmark trial that would change the way French courts prosecute rape.

The closely watched trial of a man accused of drugging his wife and inviting others to rape her while she lay unconscious at their home in the south of France has become a rallying cry for those who say society needs to change the way it thinks about sexual assault. Fifty years ago, another rape case caused similar outcry – and led to lasting changes in French law.

“You know, this isn’t just one rape trial at stake.”

So said Gisèle Halimi, the activist lawyer responsible for turning a 1974 case into a public interrogation of France’s attitudes to rape.

Together with the two victims, she decided to put the French legal system itself on trial – and it would be found wanting.

Now, as another case exposes shortcomings in the law, a new generation of campaigners say it’s time for another turning point.

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Three against two

The first came thanks to two women: Anne Tonglet and Araceli Castellano.

Both from Belgium and a couple at the time, they were backpacking on France’s south coast in summer 1974, aged 24 and 19.

On the night of 20 August, they set camp in the Morgiou calanque near Marseille. A local man approached them, found himself rebuffed, and tried again the next day with the same result.

That night, he returned with two others. The three men – Serge Petrilli, Guy Roger and Albert Mouglalis – forced their way into the women’s tent and beat and assaulted them for more than four hours.


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