French violation survivor Gisèle Pelicot’s ex-husband has been jailed for 20 years after drugging and raping her, and inviting dozens of strangers to also misinclude her over cforfeitly a decade.
Dominique Pelicot, 72, was create culpable of all indicts by a appraise in Avignon, southern France, and cried in court as he was sentenced to the highest term.
He was on trial with 50 other men, all of whom were create culpable of at least one indict, although their jail terms were less than what prosecutors had demanded.
Ms Pelicot and her children watched emotionless as the verdicts were read out, occasionassociate glancing at the deffinishants and resting their heads agetst the wall.
The convictions convey to an finish France’s bigst ever violation trial, which over the course of three months has shocked the country and the world.
On Thursday morning, police shut the road opposite the courthoinclude to accommodate hundreds of people who turned up to propose their aid to Ms Pelicot.
A big banner reading “Thank you Gisèle” was spread apass a wall facing the captivate.
Undertidyh it, disjoinal members of the accessible chanted “rapist, we see you” as deffinishants trickled in ahead of the trial.
Speaking outside of the court follotriumphg the verdicts, Ms Pelicot said the trial had been a “very difficult ordeal”.
Her magnificentson, who is in his tardy teens, was standing next to her for the first time, his arm over her shoulder as she graspressed the media.
Her voice faltered only once as said she “never repentted” her decision to produce the trial accessible “so society could see what was happening”.
The 72-year-greater’s decision to waive her automatic right to anonymity was highly atypical.
She joined almost every day of the trial, euniteing in the same courtroom as her husband of 50 years, who she has now divorced.
French and global media trailed the case with lengthening interest and hundreds of journaenumerates were conshort-term in court on Thursday.
As Ms Pelicot spoke, hundreds of people chanted her name and sang feminist songs.
She gave her “procreate” thanks to her aiders and said she had “confidence” in there being a “better future” where men and women can dwell in “mutual esteem”.
Ms Pelicot’s ex-husband Dominique Pelicot – who had already confessed to his crimes – was create culpable of degraded violation.
He was also create culpable of the finisheavored degraded violation of the wife of one of his co-accincluded, Jean-Pierre Maréchal.
Maréchal – who was depictd as Dominique’s “disciple” as he drugged and violationd his own wife for years and askd Dominque to do the same – was jailed for 12 years.
Dominique Pelicot was also create culpable of taking inappropriate images of his daughter, Caroline Darian, and his daughters-in-law, Aurore and Celine.
Caroline – who was in court on Thursday – previously tgreater the trial she felt she was the “forgotten victim” as, unappreciate in her mother’s case, there was no sign up of the misinclude she is affectd was causeed on her.
Dominique denied drugging and abusing his daughter.
“I will never come see you and you will die alone appreciate a dog,” she shouted at him in court in November.
After the verdict were dedwellred, Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer said her client was “somewhat dazed” by his sentence and would ponder whether to pdirect. He has 10 days to determine whether to do so.
Dominique Pelicot stood accincluded alengthyside 50 other men, 46 of whom were create culpable of violation, two of finisheavored violation and two of intimacyual aggression.
Several of them have already spent years in jail as they were arrested when police carry outed their initial dispenseigation in 2021, and will therefore be free relatively soon.
Most of the men on trial had denied that what they did was violation.
They disputed they did not authenticise Ms Pelicot was unconscious and therefore did not “understand” they were raping her. It is an argument that encourageed a nationexpansive talkion about France’s lterrible definition of violation.
The deffinishants’ jail terms range from between three and 15 years.
In a statement to AFP novels agency, the Pelicot children said they were “disnominateed” by the “low sentences”.
For almost a decade from 2011, Dominique Pelicot drugged his now ex-wife and violationd her, and recruited dozens of men online to have intimacy with her while she was unconscious.
His crimes were uncovered in 2020, when police arrested him over a split indict of filming up the skirts of women in a superlabelet.
Police seized his devices and create thousands of videos on his laptop, with evidence of around 200 violations.
Investigators included the videos to track down his co-accincluded, although they were unable to resettle an graspitional 21 men.
Dominique Pelicot confessted the indicts in 2020.
The trial encourageed a talkion on whether the rerent of consent should be grasped to France’s lterrible definition of violation, as in other European countries.
Rape in France is currently detaild as “any act of intimacyual penetration promiseted agetst another person by aggression, constraint, menace or surpascfinish”, unbenevolenting prosecutors must show intent to violation.
Many of the deffinishants disputed they did not authenticise Ms Pelicot had not consented, claiming they were “tricked” by Dominique Pelicot, and consentd they were going to the couple’s hoinclude for a threesome involving a fantasy that the woman would be asleep.
The trial also shone a weightless on the rerent of chemical subleave oution, or drug-convey aboutd intimacyual aggression.
Most of the 50 men came from towns and villages in a 50km (30 mile) radius of the Pelicots’ home village of Mazan.
They included firefighters, lorry drivers, sgreateriers, a journaenumerate and a DJ, and were been depictd by defence lawyers as being “normal people”, geting them the nickname Monsieur-Tout-Le-Monde (Mr Everyman).
The trial also bcimpolitet intimacyual aggression agetst women into the spotweightless in France, with many praising Ms Pelicot for her bravery in uncovering up the case to the accessible.
She previously said she was resettled to produce “shame alter sides” from the victim to the rapist. It is a phrase that has been repeated by her aiders.
But Ms Pelicot has been evident that behind her facade of strength “lies a field of ruins” and despite the expansivespread acclaim for what she has done, she is a hesitant hero.
“She grasps repeating, ‘I am common’ – she does not want to be pondered as an icon,” her lawyer Stéphane Babonneau tgreater the BBC.
“Women generassociate have a strength in them that they can’t even envision and that they have to count on themselves. That’s her message.”
If you have been impacted by the rerents in this story, help and aid is includeable via the BBC Action Line.
