Gisèle Pelicot has called out the “evil” epidemic of pornography.
Speaking to Times Radio, she called pornography a “scourge” on society and urged parents and educators to be vigilant in protecting young children from it.
Pelicot made headlines for waiving anonymity during the trial of her then-husband and the 49 other men who assaulted her while she was unconscious.
‘Love is not violence’
The 73-year-old believed that her former husband “must have been confronted very young with pornography, of that I am convinced.
“There was this face A, where he is like you and me — normal, with family, with friends, on holiday, you see absolutely nothing. And this face B, where there is this perversion, where there is this descent into hell”.
The French woman urged parents to be alert, saying: “It is a real scourge regarding our young children who connect to sites where they don’t have a single idea of what love is. They think that love is a way of violently treating women”.
Peer-on-peer abuse
Dr Ruth Weir of City St George’s, University of London is working with Gloucestershire Constabulary to research abuse in under 16-year-olds. She believes extreme porn is “playing out in young people’s relationships”.
According to the Children’s Commissioner, 27 per cent of 11-year-olds have been exposed to porn. Statistics have shown that four per cent of strangulation cases in Gloucestershire involve under 16-year-olds, and a fifth of all sexual offences in the county involve children.
Deputy Chief Constable Katy Barrow-Grint, who is involved in the research, commented that she suspects many of those cases “are in peer-on-peer relationships”.
She explained: “What we’re seeing from a policing perspective, but also more widely, is all the hallmarks of domestic abuse are there from much younger ages than perhaps the law thinks it is.”
Protecting Children
The Government recently introduced robust age verification rules for online sites that host pornographic content.
In a new case, the industry regulator Ofcom fined Youngtek Solutions Ltd £600,000 for failing to comply with the rules between July and September 2025. The firm has subsequently introduced age verification on all four of its sites.
The Director of Enforcement at Ofcom, George Lusty, stated: “Adult sites must use robust age checks to protect children in the UK from porn online, and we’ve shown we will use the full extent of our enforcement powers to secure this outcome.
“Any company that fails to comply – or misses important deadlines when we demand information – can expect to pay the price.”
AI-made child abuse videos see 260-fold increase