AVIGNON, France — A French court found all 51 defendants guilty on Thursday in a drugging-and-rape case that horrified the world and transformed the victim, Gisele Pelicot, into a stirring symbol of courage and resilience.
Pelicot’s ex-husband of 50 years, Dominique Pelicot, had pleaded guilty to drugging her repeatedly for almost a decade to rape her and to offer up her unconscious body for sex to dozens of strangers he had met online, while video recording the abuse.
A panel of five judges sentenced him to the maximum 20 years in jail, as requested by prosecutors.
The court imposed generally shorter terms than the four-to-18 years demanded by the prosecution for the other defendants, almost all of whom were accused of raping the comatose Gisele Pelicot.
In all, the court found 47 of the defendants guilty of rape, two guilty of attempted rape and two guilty of sexual assault.
A cheer went up outside the court in the southern French city of Avignon among the victim’s supporters when news of the first guilty verdicts filtered out.
Many of the accused had denied the charges, saying they thought it was a consensual sex game orchestrated by the couple and arguing that it was not rape if the husband approved.
Dominique Pelicot, 72, denied misleading the men, saying they knew exactly what they were doing. “I am a rapist like the others in this room,” he said during testimony.
Gisele, who is also 72, waived her right to anonymity during the trial and demanded that horrifying videos of the serial abuse, which were recorded by her former husband, should be seen in court, saying she hoped this would help other women speak up.
The trial has triggered protest rallies around France in support of Gisele, and spurred soul searching, including a debate on whether to update France’s rape law, which at present makes no mention that sex should involve consent.
Gisele stared down her abusers with steely determination in the packed courtroom day after day, scoffing at any claim that she might have been a willing participant.
“I’ve decided not to be ashamed, I’ve done nothing wrong,” she testified in October. “They are the ones who must be ashamed,” she said.
Horrifying secrets
The Pelicots’ children, David, Caroline and Florian, arrived in court to hear the verdict alongside their mother. The siblings have spoken out forcibly against their father, rejecting his pleas for forgiveness.
The defendants come from all walks of life – lorry drivers, soldiers, firefighters, security guards, farm workers, a supermarket worker, a journalist and the unemployed.
The youngest suspect was just 22 when he entered Pelicot’s bedroom, while the oldest was in his early 70s. Many had children and were in relationships. Most lived within a 50-km radius of the Pelicots’ picturesque village of Mazan, which nestles in vineyards below Mont Ventoux.
The case only came to light in 2020, when Dominique was caught trying to take photographs up the skirts of women in a supermarket. Police then discovered more than 20,000 photos and videos on his computer drives revealing the horrifying secrets that he had hidden from his now ex-wife for a decade.
Police believe 72 men had gone to the house to rape and abuse Gisele, but they were not able to identify them all.
Pelicot acknowledged that he had put powerful tranquilizers into his wife’s food and coffee that put her to sleep for hours. Gisele said she was worried she was developing Alzheimer’s or had a brain tumor because of the memory gaps.
She says she hopes the enormous interest in her case will help other women who have suffered sexual abuse, and brushes off praise for her own bravery in letting the world see her pain.
“It’s not courage. It’s determination to change things,” she told the court in October. “This is not just my battle, but that of all rape victims.”
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