Gisèle Pelicot’s ex-husband and 50 other men convicted in mass rape trial
Warning: This article contains details some readers may find distressing
Gisèle Pelicot’s ex-husband has been sentenced to 20 years in prison and 50 other men have been found guilty of sexual assault charges in the mass rape trial that has shocked the world.
Dominique Pelicot, 72, was convicted of aggravated rape and all other charges against him on Thursday at a court in Avignon, France.
Of the 50 men accused of rape, just one was acquitted but was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault. They now face up to 20 years in prison.
Ms Pelicot was seated on one side of the courtroom, facing the defendants as the judge announced one guilty verdict after another.
Pelicot admitted to drugging his wife of 50 years for nearly a decade to enable himself and strangers he found online to abuse her while he filmed the attacks.
Over the last three months, the harrowing testimony of 72-year-old Ms Pelicot has shocked France and the world, turning the grandmother into an international icon in the fight against sexual abuse.
Pelicot, who has been described as one of France’s worst sex offenders, begged for his family’s forgiveness and praised his former wife for her courage to tell her story to the world on Tuesday.
Anti-sexual violence campaigners are calling for tough prison sentences, seeing the verdicts as a potential turning point in combating rape culture and the use of drugs to incapacitate victims.
The decade of abuse
Pelicot said he used tranquillisers to drug his wife, rendering her unconscious for hours so he could abuse her at their former retirement home in Mazan, a small town in Provence, and elsewhere.
He first came to the attention of police in September 2020, when a shop security guard caught him filming up women’s skirts.
Police then discovered a library of more than 20,000 homemade photos and videos documenting years of abuse he had inflicted on his wife.
The material, stored on computer drives, was precisely catalogued in folders labelled “abuse,” “her rapists,” “night alone,” and other titles.
The extensive evidence led police to identify other defendants. Investigators found videos showing 72 different abusers but were not able to identify all of them.
Although some of the accused, including Pelicot, acknowledged they were guilty of rape, many did not, even in the face of video evidence.
Some defendants claimed that Dominique’s consent extended to his wife as well.
Others argued they had no intention of committing rape when responding to his invitations to their home.
Some shifted the blame onto Pelicot, saying he misled them into believing they were engaging in consensual activities.
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