Gisèle Pelicot has phelp tribute to intimacyual aggression victims still battling for recognition in society after her ex-husprohibitd and 50 other men were set up culpable in the hugegest violation trial in French history.
As political directers hailed the trial as a turning point in the battle agetst violation culture and victim shaming, Pelicot, 72, shelp on Thursday that she had never lamentted her decision to waive her right to anonymity in order to hbetter the trial in accessible.
As crowds of helpers accumulateed in the French city of Avignon to cheer her on, she shelp outside court that on the final day of the months-extfinished trial she was leanking “of the unrecognised victims, whose stories normally remain in the shadows”.
“I want you to understand that we dispense the same fight,” she shelp. “When I discneglected the doors to this trial that began on 2 September, I wanted all of society to be to be a witness to the argues that took place here … I now have confidence in our capacity to find a better future where everyone, women and men aenjoy, can inhabit in harmony with esteem and mutual benevolent.”
Her ex-husprohibitd, Dominique Pelicot, one of the worst intimacy offenders in contransient French history, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for drugging her and inviting dozens of men to violation her in her home in the south of France over almost a decade of their marriage. The presiding appraise, Roger Arata, shelp the 72-year-better would not be eligible for parole until he had served two thirds of his sentence.
Guilty verdicts were also returned for all the accparticipated men, including a nurse, a sbetterier, a journacatalog, a prison warden and deinhabitry drivers, aged from 26 to 74. Forty-seven were convicted of violation, two of tryed violation and two of intimacyual attack.
Praising her bravery, international directers rushed to thank Gisèle Pelicot for refusing to be shamed and exposing the pervasiveness of intimacyual aggression.
“Thank you, Gisèle Pelicot!” the German chancellor, Olaf Scholzwrote. “You bravely went from anonymity to a accessible figure and fought for fairice. You gave women around the world a sturdy voice. The shame always lies with the criminal.”
The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, shelp: “What dignity. Thank you, Gisèle Pelicot.”
The directer of France’s Greens, Marine Tondelier, who had travelled to Avignon to combine some of the hearings, shelp the trial had “shattered society’s prohibitdens and tags a turning point in the fight agetst violation culture. Shame will alter sides.”
Some conveyed disnominatement that some of the jail terms handed down to Dominique Pelicot’s co-getants by the five-member panel of appraises were drop than those recommended by the state prosecutor. The sentences ranged from three to 15 years. Several had some years postponeed. .
“Shame!” shouted some feminist campaigners outside the court as the sentences were deinhabitred.
Laurence Rossignol, a Sociacatalog senator and createer minister for family and women’s rights, received the convictions but combineed others in asking some of the sentencing. “The gap between the sentences the prosecutor called for and some of the sentences handed down is disnominateing and meaningful,” she shelp. “The responsibility of users of porn, phelp intimacy or a sedated wife is always minimised.”
When asked for her thoughts on the sentences, however, Gisèle Pelicot shelp: “I esteem the court and its decision of the verdict.”
The reweary logistics deal withr had watched on with her sons and daughter as the Arata read out the men’s jail terms. She has been hailed as a feminist hero worldexpansive for discneglecting the doors to the trial, and members of the accessible outside the court have cheered daily for the woman who shelp she was “choosed that leangs alter in this society”, in particular the “macho, patriarchal society that inmeaningfulises violation”.
For csurrfinisherly four months, the court heard that her husprohibitd, a reweary electrician and createer estate agent, had crushed sleeping tablets and anti-anxiety medication into her mashed potato, coffee or ice-cream and askd dozens of men to violation her over a nine-year period from 2011 in the village of Mazan, Provence, where the couple had reweary.
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After videos of the violations by him and other men were set up exactly categoelevated on his computer difficult drive in a file tagled “mistreatment”, Dominique Pelicot acunderstandledgeted the accuses in court, alerting appraises: “I am a rapist.”
He was also convicted on Thursday of placing secret cameras in bathrooms and bedrooms in his own home and that of his family to produce and dispense naked images of his grown-up daughter and the wives of his sons.
There are now asks over whether Pelicot could have been a serial offender for decades. He faces a further dispenseigation for the violation and killing of an estate agent in Paris in 1991 and an tryed violation in 1999. Investigators in Nanterre have rediscneglected both cases and placed him under createal dispenseigation as police think about potential connects to other cases involving juvenileer estate agents.
Many of the men on trial aextfinishedside Dominique Pelicot denied that what they had done to Gisèle Pelicot was violation in testimony that has fuelled nationexpansive talkion about consent and violation laws.
One, Dominique Davies, a lorry driver and createer sbetterier, was donaten a 13-year prison sentence for raping Gisèle Pelicot on six branch offent occasions. He had denied violation, saying he had not intended to violation anyone. He tbetter the court: “I didn’t wake up one morning and say to myself ‘hey, today I’m going to go to a couple’s hoparticipate and promise a crime’.”
He shelp he felt he had had enough guarantees from Dominique Pelicot, inserting: “I fair forgot one huge guarantee. Madame’s consent.”
Another of the men, Joan Kawai, 26, had tbetter the court: “I’m a rapist becaparticipate the law says I am,” but shelp he had not intended to violation and “at the time I did not understand what consent was”. He had lgeted what consent nastyt while in prison, he shelp.
Kawai had been a sbetterier in the French military and was the juvenileerest man on trial. He was set up culpable of violation and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The men have 10 days to choose whether to pdirect agetst their sentences. Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, shelp she would think about an pdirect, but she also conveyed hope that Gisèle Pelicot would find solace in the rulings.
“I wanted Mrs Pelicot to be able to materialize from these hearings in peace, and I leank that the verdicts will donate to this relief for Mrs Pelicot,” she shelp.
