Gisèle Pelicot’s ex-husband is sentenced 20 years after being found guilty in the rape trial – National

Gisèle Pelicot said after 51 men were found guilty Thursday in the drug and rape trial that made her a feminist hero that the ordeal had been “very difficult” and expressed support for other victims of sexual violence .

“We share the same struggle,” she said in her first words after the court in the southern French city of Avignon handed down prison sentences of between three and 20 years in the shocking case that stunned France and sparked a nationwide reckoning over the scourge of rape culture .

Pelicot – whose Courage and stoicism have made her an internationally recognized figure and an icon for many women – said she was thinking about her grandchildren after enduring more than three months of court hearings detailing nearly a decade of rape and other abuse, that were inflicted on her by her now ex-member. Husband and his accomplices.

“I fought this fight for them too,” she said of her grandchildren.

The court sentenced her ex-husband Dominique Pelicot to 20 years in prison drugged and raped her and allowed other men to rape her while she was unconscious.

The sentence was the maximum possible under French law. He was found guilty of all charges against him. At age 72, it could mean he spends the rest of his life in prison. He can only apply for early release once at least two thirds of the sentence have been served.

Roger Arata, the senior judge at the court in the southern French city of Avignon, urged Pelicot to support the conviction. After it was delivered, he sat back down and cried.

Arata read one after another verdicts against Pelicot and the 50 other men charged in the case.

“You are therefore found guilty of aggravated rape of the person of Ms. Gisèle Pelicot,” the judge said as he worked through the names on the long list of defendants.

Gisèle Pelicot sat on one side of the courtroom, facing the defendants, sometimes nodding her head as verdicts were announced. The announcement of the guilty verdicts and sentences took just over an hour.

Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, said she would weigh a possible appeal, but also expressed hope that Gisèle Pelicot would find comfort in the court’s rulings.

“I wanted Ms. Pelicot to be able to emerge from these hearings with peace of mind, and I think the verdicts will contribute to that relief for Ms. Pelicot,” she said.

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Of the 50 people charged with rape, only one was acquitted but found guilty of aggravated sexual assault. Another man was also found guilty of sexual assault, meaning all 51 defendants were found guilty in one way or another.

In an adjoining room where family members of the defendants watched the trial on television screens, some burst into tears and gasped as the verdicts were announced.

Protesters gathered outside the courthouse watched the proceedings on their phones. Some read the verdicts and applauded as they were announced inside. Some carried oranges as symbolic gifts for the defendants on their way to prison.

Prosecutors had demanded that Dominique Pelicot receive the maximum sentence of 20 years and that the other rape defendants receive prison sentences of 10 to 18 years.

But the court was more lenient than prosecutors had hoped, with many sentencing them to less than a decade in prison.

For the defendants, except Dominique Pelicot, the sentences ranged from three to 15 years in prison, with some of them being partially suspended. Arata informed six defendants that they were now free, which explains the time they had already spent in custody while awaiting trial.

Dominique Pelicot admitted that he drugged his then-wife of 50 years for years so that he and strangers he recruited online could abuse her while he filmed the assaults.

The horrific ordeal inflicted on Gisèle Pelicot, now a 72-year-old grandmother, in what she said was a loving marriage of nearly a decade, and her courage during the painful process, have transformed the retired power company worker into a feminist hero of the nation.

The trial, which spanned more than three months, mobilized activists against sexual violence and sparked calls for tougher measures to eradicate rape culture.

The defendants were accused of taking part in Dominique Pelicot’s sordid rape and abuse fantasies, which were played out at the couple’s retirement home in the small Provence town of Mazan and elsewhere.

Dominique Pelicot testified that he hid sedatives in the food and drinks he gave his then-wife, rendering her so unconscious that he could do whatever he wanted to her for hours.

One of the men was found guilty and sentenced to 12 years in prison, not for attacking Gisèle Pelicot, but for drugging and raping his own wife – with the help and drugs of Dominique Pelicot, who was also found guilty, of raping this man’s wife.

The five justices voted on their verdicts by secret ballot, with the majority voting in favor of the convictions and sentences.

Activists against sexual violence hoped for exemplary prison sentences and saw the trial as a possible turning point in the fight against sexual violence and the use of drugs to oppress victims.

Gisèle Pelicot’s courage, as a survivor of sexual abuse, to renounce her right to anonymity and to successfully advocate for the hearings and shocking evidence – including videos – to be heard publicly has raised eyebrows both at the national level in France and among families, Couples and other friend groups engaged in discussions about how to better protect women and the role men can play in achieving this goal.

“Men are starting to talk to women – their girlfriends, mothers and boyfriends – in ways they didn’t before,” said Fanny Foures, 48, who joined other women from the feminist group Les Amazones in messages of support for Gisèle Pelicot plastered walls around Avignon before the verdict.

“It was awkward at first, but now real dialogues are happening,” she said.

“Some women may be realizing for the first time that their ex-husbands have hurt them or that someone close to them has committed abuse,” Foures added. “And men are starting to reckon with their own behavior or complicity – things they have ignored or failed to act on. It’s hard, but it creates change.”

A large banner that activists hung on a city wall opposite the courthouse read: “MERCI GISELE” – Thank you, Gisèle.

Police first became aware of Dominique Pelicot in September 2020 when a supermarket security guard caught him secretly filming women’s skirts.

Police then found his library of homemade images documenting his wife’s years of abuse – a total of more than 20,000 photos and videos, stored on computer drives and cataloged in folders labeled “abuse,” “her rapists,” “night alone.” and other titles.

The abundance of evidence led the police to the other defendants. Investigators counted 72 different perpetrators in the videos, but were unable to identify them all.

Although some of the defendants – including Dominique Pelicot – admitted they were guilty of rape, many did not, even in the face of video evidence. The hearings sparked a broader debate in France about whether the country’s legal definition of rape should be expanded to include specific mention of consent.

Some defendants argued that Dominique Pelicot’s consent also affected his wife. Some tried to excuse their behavior by insisting that they had not intended to rape anyone when they responded to their husband’s invitations to come to their home. Some blamed him, saying he led them to believe they were engaging in consensual perversion.