UK's Queen Camilla wrote personal letter to Gisele Pelicot

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Britain's Queen Camilla wrote a private letter to Frenchwoman Gisele Pelicot who was drugged and raped for a decade by her now ex-husband and strangers he enlisted online, sources said Thursday.

Camilla, 77, has long been a vocal campaigner to improve support for survivors of rape and abuse.

"As a long-term supporter of survivors of domestic and sexual abuse, the queen wrote to Madame Pelicot privately," a palace source told Newsweek magazine, adding the letter was at the queen's "instigation".

"She was tremendously affected by the Madame Pelicot case in France and that lady's extraordinary dignity and courage," the palace source said.

"Because as she rightly put it, why should she be made to feel like a victim or hide away in shame?"

Pelicot's lawyer, Antoine Camus, confirmed to AFP that his client had received a letter from Buckingham Palace, but did not divulge its "private" contents.

Gisele Pelicot poses in Avignon, on October 23, 2024, during the trial of her former partner accused of drugging her for nearly ten years and inviting strangers to rape her at their home in Mazan, a small town in the south of France.

Pelicot's husband Dominique, 72, was tried alongside 50 other men and sentenced to 20 years for aggravated rape in the French city of Avignon in December.

Dozens of men who visited the family home to rape Gisele Pelicot, who was unconscious after being drugged by her husband, were handed terms of between three and 15 years. Some are now appealing their sentences.

A source with knowledge of the letter confirmed to AFP that it had been sent by Camilla, but Buckingham palace did not want to comment publicly.

Lawyer Camus told Le Monde daily that Pelicot was "flabbergasted, touched and very proud to see that she succeeded in bringing her fight to attention of the royal family in England".

Pelicot, 72, was hailed as a hero for waiving her anonymity and said she "never regretted" opening the trial to the public.

She said after the trial she was now thinking of the "unrecognised victims whose stories often remain in the shadows".

More than 173,000 people have signed an online petition calling for the Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded to Pelicot.

"It is hard to think of any form of violence that poses a greater challenge to peace than sexual violence. It is gendered and endemic," said Catherine Mayer, who launched the appeal on change.org.

"Gisele Pelicot cut through the smog of misinformation in waiving her anonymity to attend the trial of her attackers and give testimony," she added.