Gisèle Pelicot said Thursday that 51 men were found guilty in the drug and rape trial that turned her into a feminist hero, saying the ordeal was “very difficult” and expressing support for other victims of sexual violence.
“We share the same fight,” he said in his first words after a court in the southern French city of Avignon handed down a prison sentence of three to 20 years in a shocking case that stunned France and its About gave rise to the National Accounts. Rape culture.
Pellicote – Whose Courage and perseverance has turned her into 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 that included nearly A decade of rape and other abuses against her are now in the past. The husband and his partner
“It's also for them that I led this fight,” she said of her grandchildren.
The court sentenced her ex-husband Dominique Pellicote to 20 years in prison Drugs and its rape 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 the charges against him. At 72, that could mean spending the rest of his life in prison. He will not be eligible to seek early release until at least two-thirds of the sentence has been served.
Roger Arata, the main judge at the court in the southern French city of Avignon, asked Pellicote to stand trial. After being delivered, he sat down and started crying.
Artha read out the successive verdicts against Pellicott and 50 others in the case.
“Therefore you are convicted of aggravated rape on the person of Mme. Gisèle Pelicot,” the judge said as he worked his way through the names of the long list of defendants.
Gisèle Pelicot sat on one side of the courtroom, facing the defendants and sometimes shaking her head as the verdicts were announced. It took Arata only an hour to pronounce the guilty verdicts and sentences.
Dominique Pellicote's lawyer, Béatrice Zavaro, said she would consider a possible appeal, but also expressed hope that Giselle Pellicote would be comforted by the court's rulings.
“I wanted Mrs. Pellicott to come out of these hearings peacefully, and I think the verdicts will help provide that relief for Mrs. Pellicott.” He said.
Get breaking national news.
For news that affects Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you as they happen.
Only one of the 50 rape accused was acquitted, but he was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault. Another man was also found guilty of the sexual assault he was tried for – meaning all 51 defendants were found guilty in one way or another.
In an adjoining room where the defendants' families watched the proceedings on television screens, some broke into tears and gasped as the sentences unfolded.
Protesters gathered outside the court followed the proceedings on their phones. Some people read out the verdicts and applauded when the announcement was made inside. Some people were carrying oranges as a symbolic gift to the accused going to jail.
Prosecutors had asked for a maximum sentence of 20 years for Dominique Pellicott and 10 to 18 years for the other attempted rapes.
But the court was more lenient than prosecutors had hoped, with many sentenced to less than a decade in prison.
For the defendants other than Dominique Pellicote, the sentences ranged from three to 15 years in prison, some of which were suspended. Arata told the six defendants they were now free, based on time spent in custody awaiting trial.
Dominique Pellicote admitted that for years he drugged his then-50-year-old wife so he and strangers he recruited online could abuse her while he filmed the attacks.
The ordeal, which spanned nearly a decade, left Gisèle Pelicot, now a 72-year-old grandmother, in what she believed to be a loving marriage, and her courage turned the retired power company worker into a national feminist hero. has changed. .
The trial, which lasted more than three months, mobilized anti-sexual violence campaigners and sparked calls for tougher measures to end the rape culture.
All the defendants were accused of taking part in the rape and abuse of Dominique Pellicote, which took place at the couple's retirement home in the small Provence town of Mazan and elsewhere.
Dominique Pellicote testified that he hid tranquilizers in food and drink that he gave his then-wife and knocked her out so deeply that he could do whatever he wanted with her for hours.
One of the men was found guilty and sentenced to 12 years in prison for drugging and raping his own wife, not for assaulting Giselle Pellicote – aided and abetted by Dominique Pellicote. Along with drugs, who was also found guilty of raping the man's wife.
The five judges voted by secret ballot in their decisions, with majority votes for convictions and sentences.
Campaigners against sexual violence had hoped for ideal prison conditions and saw the trial as a possible turning point in the fight against sexual violence and the use of drugs to subdue victims.
She waived her right to anonymity as a rape survivor and opened up to hearings and shocking evidence – including videos. Gisèle Pelicot's courage in successfully proceeding to be heard in court has sparked a conversation in France nationally and between families, couples and both. Friends groups on better protection of women and what role men can play in achieving this goal.
“Men are starting to talk to women – their girlfriends, mothers and friends – in a way they didn't before,” said Fanny Foures, 48, who joined Gisèle among other women in the feminist group Les Amazons. Pelicot was joined by messages of support. The walls around Avignon before the judgment.
“At first it was awkward, but now there are real conversations,” he said.
“Some women are realizing, perhaps for the first time, that they have been violated by their ex-husbands, or abused by someone close to them,” Fores added. “And men are starting to take stock of their own behavior or complicities — things they've overlooked or failed to act on. It's overwhelming, but it's creating change.
A large banner that campaigners hung on the city wall in front of the court read, “MERCI GISELE” — Thank you Gisèle.
Dominique Pellicote first came to police attention in September 2020, when a supermarket security guard caught him secretly filming up women's skirts.
Police then found his home photo library documenting his wife's abuse over the years – more than 20,000 photos and videos in all, stored on computer drives and cataloged in folders. Among those marked “Abuse,” “His Rapists,” “Lonely Night” and others. Titles
An abundance of evidence led the police to other suspects. In the videos, investigators counted 72 different abusers, but could not identify them all.
Although some of the accused, including Dominique Pellicote, admitted they were guilty of rape, many did not, despite video evidence. The hearings sparked a wide-ranging debate in France about whether the country's legal definition of rape should be broadened to include specific mention of consent.
Some defendants argued that Dominic Pellicote's consent also covered his wife. Some tried to justify their behavior by saying that they did not intend to rape anyone when they responded to their husband's invitation to come to their home. Some laid the blame at his door, saying he misled them into thinking they were participating in consensual kink.