Victoria Derbyshire on the Gisèle Pelicot Interview
Newscast
BBC
4.3 • 6.6K Ratings
🗓️ 14 February 2026
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, Laura and Paddy speak to Victoria Derbyshire about her exclusive UK interview with Gisèle Pelicot, the woman at the centre of France's largest rape trial.
She told Victoria she was "crushed by horror" on discovering that, for years, her husband had repeatedly drugged her unconscious and invited dozens of men to rape her.
Victoria spoke to her about how she waived her legal right to anonymity, opening up the trial to the public and the media in order for “the shame to shift to the other side”.
The full interview is on iPlayer now and on BBC2 at 10pm on Sunday. It’s called Gisèle Pelicot: The Newsnight Interview.
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Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. The presenters were Laura Kuenssberg and Paddy O’Connell. It was made by Chris Flynn with Kris Jalowiecki. The social producer was Gabriel Purcell-Davies. The technical producer was Phil Bull. The weekend series producer is Chris Flynn. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:05.0 | Laura, today we're going to be talking about one of the most amazing women in the news for the last 25 years that I can have, well, that I can remember. |
| 0:15.0 | That's right. Giselle Pellico, a name that will be familiar, I'm sure, to every newscaster. I think it is a name that |
| 0:22.1 | not just was in the headlines, but became iconic to many people. She was the French woman |
| 0:29.4 | who had the courage to tell her own most appalling, harrowing story in a courtroom, in a quiet |
| 0:36.7 | part of France over many weeks and many months. |
| 0:39.3 | Victoria, our colleague, is going to tell us about her exclusive UK interview with |
| 0:44.3 | Giselle Pelico, her extraordinary story and also how she is trying to turn the horror of what happened to her |
| 0:51.3 | into a testament to actually how shame can be transferred. |
| 0:56.5 | It's one of the powerful messages that she has said publicly, |
| 1:00.0 | and she said outside the courtroom that the shame should not belong to her. |
| 1:03.9 | It should belong to the perpetrators. |
| 1:06.2 | Newscast from the BBC. |
| 1:08.5 | Fat boy sliver me in the classroom doing our violin lessons. I was the tappletail in the class. Can I have an apology, please? I trust almost nobody. That daddy has to sometimes do strong language. Next time in Moscow. I feel delulu with no solulu. Take me down to Downey Street. Let's go have a tour. Blimey. Hello, it's Laura in the studio. Hello, it's Paddy in the studio. And newscasters, please be aware that some of the things that we're going to talk about with Victoria and her interview with Giselle Pelico are, of course, upsetting, harrowing. And as ever we should say, there's tons of help and support out there, which you can find on the BBC Action Line website. There are all |
| 1:44.3 | sorts of organisations that help with these kinds of dreadful issues that too many people |
| 1:50.3 | have been victim to over the years. So let's meet Victoria to hear more about what's happened |
| 1:57.2 | with this encounter. Hello, Vic. Hi, Paddy. Hi, Laura. How are you? Great to have you with us. |
| 2:02.5 | So before we talk about what actually she says in the interview, I just wonder, what was the |
| 2:09.1 | experience of meeting her, you know, someone that even as journalists, we saw her image, |
| 2:12.6 | we saw her walking into court with such dignity on many times. Just what was it like when you |
| 2:17.1 | met, Giselle Pelico? |
| 2:18.5 | I was really apprehensive about meeting her. I knew a lot about the case, an awful lot of the |
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