Gisèle Pélicot’s ex-husband sentenced to twenty years in jail in gang rape trial in France

A French court docket sentenced Gisèle Pélicot’s ex-husband to a most 20 years in jail for drugging and raping her and permitting different males to rape her whereas she was knocked out, in abuse which lasted virtually a decade.

The sentence towards Dominique Pelicot was handed down after he was discovered responsible of all costs towards him. At 72 years outdated, this might imply he’ll spend the remainder of his life in jail.

The decision was learn by the president of the Avignon court docket, Roger Arata.

He learn the verdicts towards Dominique Pelicot and 50 different males in flip, declaring “you’re due to this fact discovered responsible of aggravated rape towards the particular person of Gisèle Pelicot” whereas going by way of the primary names on the checklist.

Gisèle Pélicot sat on one aspect of the courtroom, dealing with the defendants whereas the choose pronounced the responsible verdicts one after the opposite.

This historic affair deeply shook France.

Dominique Pelicot admitted that for years he had drugged his then-50-year-old spouse in order that he and strangers he had recruited on-line might abuse her whereas he filmed the assaults.

The horrible ordeal inflicted over almost a decade on Gisèle Pélicot, now a 72-year-old grandmother, in what she thought was a loving marriage, and her braveness throughout this murderous and astonishing trial remodeled the retiree from an electrical energy firm right into a feminist heroine. of the nation.

Spanning greater than three months, the trial galvanized campaigners towards sexual violence and sparked requires more durable measures to stamp out rape tradition.

Dominique Pelicot and 49 different males have been tried in Avignon, southern France, for aggravated rape and tried rape.

Prosecutors requested that he obtain the utmost sentence and sentences of 10 to 18 years for the others. Additionally they requested a four-year jail sentence towards one other defendant tried for aggravated sexual assault.

Of the 50 males accused of rape, just one was acquitted however discovered responsible of aggravated sexual assault.

The defendants have been all accused of getting participated in Dominique Pelicot’s sordid fantasies of rape and abuse, carried out within the couple’s retirement house, within the small Provençal city of Mazan and elsewhere.

Dominique Pelicot testified that he hid tranquilizers within the meals and drinks he gave his then-wife, knocking her out so badly that he might do no matter he needed to her for hours.

One of many males was on trial not for assaulting Gisèle Pelicot, however for drugging and raping his personal spouse – with the assistance and medicines of Dominique Pelicot, who was additionally on trial for raping the opposite man’s spouse. .

The 5 judges voted on their choices by secret poll, with a majority required to convict in addition to the sentences of these discovered responsible.

Activists towards sexual violence see this trial as a doable turning level within the battle towards rape tradition and using medicine to manage victims.

The braveness of Gisèle Pélicot in waiving her proper to anonymity as a survivor of sexual abuse and succeeding in having the hearings and the stunning proof – together with the movies – heard in open court docket has fueled conversations each on the nationwide stage in France in addition to inside households, {couples} and teams of buddies on methods to higher defend ladies and the position that males can play in pursuing this goal.

A big banner that activists held on a metropolis wall in entrance of the courthouse learn: Thanks Gisèle.

Dominique Pelicot first got here to police consideration in September 2020, when a grocery store safety guard caught him surreptitiously filming ladies’s skirts.

Police later discovered his library of selfmade footage documenting years of abuse inflicted on his spouse – greater than 20,000 images and movies in whole, saved on laptop disks and cataloged in folders marked “abuse”, “his rapists”, “night time alone” and others. securities.

The abundance of proof led the police to the opposite accused. Within the movies, investigators counted 72 completely different attackers, however couldn’t determine all of them.

Whereas some defendants – together with Dominique Pelicot – admitted that they have been responsible of rape, many didn’t, even within the face of video proof. The hearings sparked a wider debate in France over whether or not the authorized definition of rape must be expanded to incorporate particular point out of consent.

Some defendants argued that Dominique Pelicot’s consent additionally coated his spouse. Some sought to excuse their conduct by insisting that that they had not meant to rape anybody after they responded to their husbands’ invites to return to their house.