The story of Gisele Pelicot shocked the world. For almost a decade, the 72-year-old French grandmother’s husband Dominique secretly sedated her with sleeping pills and anxiety medication and raped her. He invited fifty other men to rape her too - documenting the abuse in thousands of photographs and videos. Dominique Pelicot has been jailed for 20 years. But Gisele is not alone.
One British woman, Kate (not her real name) has told File on 4 Investigates how she confronted the unthinkable – that the man she thought loved her, had been secretly drugging and sexually assaulting her for years. He laced her bedtime cup of tea with medication so he could commit his crimes in secret.
Kate talks to reporter Jane Deith about what it’s like to discover you’re married to a monster. Kate’s children describe the devastating impact on learning their father was a rapist.
File on 4 investigates hears from the police detective who built the case against Kate’s now ex-husband, and how he almost avoided being brought to justice after the Crown Prosecution Service initially said there wasn’t enough evidence to put him on trial. It was left to Kate to fight the system to get justice – and keep herself safe.
File on 4 Investgates discovers domestic spiking is disturbingly common in cases of domestic abuse. One academic has coined the term ‘chemical control ’ to describe the administration of medication to physically subdue women. Unlike physical violence, spiking may leave no trace and hence go unnoticed by victims, the police, doctors, and social workers.
A new named offence of spiking is soon to be introduced. But with much of the focus still on spiking in settings like bars and clubs, will it address the threat behind closed doors?Reporter: Jane Deith
Producer: Emma Forde
Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards
Editor: Carl Johnston
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37:15
Anatomy of a Firetrap
Around the UK, a hidden crisis has been growing over the past eight years.Since the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, something extraordinary has become clear about many of Britain's high-rise residential buildings. They are nothing like as safe as we had imagined. In fact, the latest statistics show that more than 5,000 high-rise buildings have faults so serious they pose a risk to life. Clearing this up has quietly become one of the biggest infrastructure challenges of our generation, with a bill totalling £16.6 billion and rising, and a project which could continue for the next 20 years.Author and housing journalist Peter Apps investigates the building safety crisis through the story of one building which has many of the problems afflicting places across the country.What is the reality for people living there? Why was it built like this? And with the government's promise of 1.5 million new homes over the next five years, do we risk making the same mistakes again?Presenter: Peter Apps
Producer: Ant Adeane
Assistant Producer: May Robson
Executive Producer: Anishka Sharma
Mix: Mike WoolleyA Reduced Listening production for Radio 4
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36:52
Hell and High Water: Are we ready for the floods?
2024 experienced the wettest period since records began and extreme rainfall events are becoming more frequent because of climate change. So what's being done to protect us from flooding - and is it enough? The Government has said it will build 1.5 million new homes by the end of the current parliament - but File on 4 Investigates has discovered that hundreds of thousands of homes have already been built in areas at high risk of flooding. And a measure to protect new properties against flash floods caused by intense rainfall has never been made compulsory - despite being introduced 15 years ago. Reporter: Adrian Goldberg
Producer: Fergus Hewison
Technical Producer: James Bradshaw
Production co-ordinator: Tim Fernley
Editor: Carl Johnston
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38:57
What’s Happening to Your Vet Bills?
Pet ownership has rocketed since the covid pandemic, but so have vet prices. In fact, bills have increased by more than 60% in the last ten years. The Competition and Markets Authority is so concerned about the increases it has a launched an investigation into the industry and is due to reveal its findings this year. Datshiane Navanyagam investigates the pet industry and the corporate takeover of high street vets – talking to whistleblowers about how they feel they're being measured on the amount of money they bring in.Reporter: Datshiane Navanayagam
Producers: Jim Booth and Tom Wall
Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford
Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley
Editor: Carl Johnston
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38:50
The Tyre Scandal
Every year the UK produces around 50 million tyres for disposal. They’re supposed to be sent for recycling. Instead, big money is being made by diverting tyres to illegal and dangerous 'pyrolysis' plants they're melted down to extract oil and steel. File on 4 Investigates, together with a team of journalists from Source Material, a not-for-profit group specialising in climate and corruption, follow the tyres from the UK to India using tracking devices. The team discovers just how large scale this largely illicit business has become. Earlier this year, a makeshift pyrolysis plant exploded near Mumbai, killing four people. It had been processing tyres from abroad, almost certainly Europe and the UK. Reporter Paul Kenyon confronts a tyre trader in the north of England who admits to shipping his waste tyres to India for pyrolysis.Reporter: Paul Kenyon
Producer: Anna Meisel
Technical producer: Craig Boardman
Production coordinator: Tim Fernley
Editor: Carl Johnston
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