Since Gisèle Pelicot, more global networks of drug‑facilitated rape have been revealed – here’s what that tells us

This article by Lisa Suguira is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

When the world learned about the horrors inflicted upon Gisèle Pelicot by her husband and his fellow rapists in 2024, it was presented as a shocking anomaly.

I participated in a documentary about the case, and during filming was asked: “Could this happen again?”. My response was: “It already is, and is an extension of the domestic abuse and sexual violence that men are subjecting women to every day.”When the world learned about the horrors inflicted upon Gisèle Pelicot by her husband and his fellow rapists in 2024, it was presented as a shocking anomaly.

I participated in a documentary about the case, and during filming was asked: “Could this happen again?”. My response was: “It already is, and is an extension of the domestic abuse and sexual violence that men are subjecting women to every day.”

We’ve since seen several more cases emerge. Earlier this year, CNN exposed a global “rape academy”. In this online network, men teach one another how to drug, assault and abuse their asleep, unconscious or incapacitated female partners. In early July, the UK National Crime Agency said it had uncovered a “truly international network” of drug-facilitated rape.

Meanwhile, in Germany, a 68-year-old man has been charged with drugging and raping 14 women he met on dating platforms and filming his attacks. Also in Germany, a 32-year-old doctor has been jailed for five years for aggravated rape. He was part of a chat group where he provided information about how to rape sedated women.

The material in these forums is graphic and disturbing. Videos show men exploiting unconscious women and lifting their eyelids to demonstrate that they are asleep or sedated. Content is categorised with tags such as “passedout” and “eyecheck”. Some videos have attracted more than 50,000 views.

The existence of such networks is unsettling not because they are entirely separate from society, but because they reveal and amplify attitudes and structures that already exist within it.