"You raped me. It's not a sex scene": Gisèle Pelicot confronts one of her rapists again.

ParisGisèle Pelicot, The French woman who was raped by a hundred men while she was unconscioust, drugged by her husband, has had to return to court a year after the mega-trial that convicted 51 of the men who abused her. On Monday, the appeal process for one of her rapists, a 44-year-old man who was sentenced to nine years in prison, began in Nîmes. He is the only one of those convicted who appealed the sentence. Neither the victim's ex-husband, Dominique Pelicot, sentenced to 20 years in prison -the maximum sentence-, nor have the other convicts appealed.

"When will you admit it? Own up to your actions!" she said, looking him straight in the face. Dressed in a white shirt, a striped vest, and black pants, Pelicot maintained a clear and direct speech throughout. "He raped me, this isn't a sex scene. These scenes are horrible, I will always live with these images in my head," she told the court.

The woman expressed surprise that, almost a year after his first conviction, the accused continues to deny the crime. "The only victim in this room is me, not you. Own up to your actions once and for all, I'm ashamed for you," she said.

Unlike the mega-trial held a year ago in Avignon, this time the proceedings will last only four days, and a jury of five men and four women will decide whether the accused is guilty or innocent. Dominique Pelicot, who is serving a sentence in solitary confinement in a prison in southern France, appears as a witness. During his interrogation on Tuesday, the victim's ex-husband reiterated that the accused knew perfectly well that the woman would be sedated. "Everyone had that information from the very beginning," he asserted. He also recalled that all abusers were required to follow instructions that make it clear the victim was actually asleep and not letting on, such as not making noise, not being violent, and undressing before entering the room.

The accused, however, maintains—as he already stated in the trial that convicted him—that he was "deceived" by Dominique Pelicot, who thought he was participating in a consensual threesome: "I went there for a libertine plan and did what I was asked to do," he declared. But Pelicot also refuted his arguments during that trial. "Did you tell her that she pretended to be asleep and that it was a game?" he is asked. "I never said this," Dominique Pelicot responded on Tuesday.

During cross-examination on Wednesday, the defendant denied raping Gisèle Pelicot, even after videos were shown in court showing him penetrating the victim several times while she was snoring. "For me, I didn't commit rape," he asserted. When asked what his definition of rape is, he replies: "Someone tied up and forced." The defense lawyer then asks him if he is familiar with the notion of "consent," and the man replies that he had the consent of both Gisèle and Dominque Pelicot, because—the defendant claims—when he spoke online via the Coco.fr dating site, there was also a woman present. "She spoke to me... I don't know if it was her, but I think there were two interlocutors," he says, unconvincingly.

Gisèle Pelicot said on Wednesday that she is exhausted by this trial that has been going on for five years: "I am still affected, because this is painful for me. The damage is done, but I want to say that I have never regretted making this decision (to report)," she said. "I tell the victims that they should never be ashamed to report what they have been forcibly made to suffer," she added.

Just like a year ago, on the first day of the trial, dozens of people gathered outside the courthouse to welcome Gisèle Pelicot with applause. The woman has become an icon of feminism and the fight against sexual violence for her courage in a trial that was held publicly at her request. "So that shame changes sides," she argued in a phrase that went around the world. Since the massive trial, Pelicot has kept a very low public profile, with no interviews or public appearances, but she is scheduled to release her memoirs in February.