After 51 men were found guilty on Thursday in the drug and rape trial that made her a feminist hero, Gisèle Pelicot said the ordeal was "very difficult" and expressed support for other victims of sexual violence.
"We share the same fight," she said in her first words after a court in the southern French city of Avignon handed down jail terms ranging from three to 20 years in a shocking case that stunned France and sparked a national reckoning. rape culture.
Pelicot — whose courage and stoicism have made her an internationally recognized figure and an icon for many women - she said she was thinking of her grandchildren after enduring more than three months of court hearings dealing with nearly a decade of rape and other abuse inflicted on her by her now ex-husband and his accomplices.
"It's also because of them that I've fought this fight," she said of her grandchildren.
The court sent her ex-husband Dominiqua Pelicot to prison for 20 years drug and rape her and allowed the 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 72, it could mean he spends the rest of his life in prison. He will not be eligible to apply for early release until at least two-thirds of his sentence has been served.
Roger Arata, the chief judge of the court in the southern French city of Avignon, told Pelicot to stand by the sentencing. After the delivery, he sat down again and cried.
Arata read the verdicts one by one against Pelicot and the 50 other men on trial in the case.
“You are therefore declared guilty of aggravated rape on the person of Mme. Gisèle Pelicot,” said the judge as he worked his way through the long list of defendants.
Gisèle Pelicot sat on one side of the courtroom, facing the defendants, sometimes nodding her head as the verdicts were announced. It took Arata just over an hour to hand down the guilty verdicts and sentences.
Dominique Pelicot's lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, said she would consider a potential appeal, but also expressed hope that Gisèle Pelicot would find solace in the court's rulings.
"I wanted Ms. Pelicot to be able to come out of these hearings with peace of mind, and I think the sentences will add to that relief for Ms. Pelicot," she said.
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Of the 50 accused of rape, only one was acquitted, but was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault. Another man was also found guilty of the sexual assault charge he was on trial for - meaning all 51 defendants have been found guilty in one way or another.
In an adjoining room, where family members of the defendants watched the proceedings on television screens, some broke into tears and gasped as the verdicts were revealed.
Demonstrators gathered outside the courthouse watched the proceedings on their phones. Some read the verdicts and applauded when they were announced inside. Some carried oranges as symbolic gifts for defendants heading to prison.
Prosecutors had asked for Dominique Pelicot to receive the maximum sentence of 20 years and sentences of 10 to 18 years for others tried for rape.
But the trial was more lenient than prosecutors had hoped, and many were sentenced to less than ten years in prison.
Sentences for defendants other than Dominique Pelicot ranged from three to 15 years in prison, with some of the time suspended. Arata told the six defendants that they are now free, equivalent to time spent in custody awaiting trial.
Dominique Pelicot admitted drugging his then 50-year-old wife for years so he and strangers he recruited online could abuse her while he filmed the attacks.
The harrowing ordeal Gisèle Pelicot, now a 72-year-old grandmother, inflicted on a marriage she thought was loving over nearly a decade and her courage during a bruising trial turned the retired energy company worker into a national feminist hero. .
The trial, which lasted more than three months, galvanized campaigners against sexual violence and prompted calls for tougher measures to crack down on rape culture.
All the defendants were accused of participating in Dominique Pelicot's vile fantasies of rape and abuse, which took place at the couple's retirement home in the small Provençal town of Mazan and elsewhere.
Dominique Pelicot testified that he hid sedatives in the food and drink he gave his then-wife, knocking 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, not for assaulting 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 the man's wife.
The five judges voted in their verdicts by secret ballot, with a majority vote for convictions and sentences.
Campaigners against sexual violence had 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 suppress victims.
Gisèle Pelicot's courage to waive her right to anonymity as a victim of sexual abuse and to successfully advocate for hearings and shocking evidence - including videos - to be heard in public court has sparked conversations both nationally in France and among families, couples and groups of friends about on 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 friends - in a way they didn't before," said Fanny Foures, 48, who joined other women from the feminist group Les Amazones in posting messages in support of Gisèle Pelicot. the 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 violated them or that someone close to them has committed abuse," Foures added. "And men begin to reckon with their own behavior or complicity—things they've ignored or failed to act on." It's hard, but it creates change.”
A large banner that the activists hung on the city wall opposite the courthouse read: "MERCI GISELE" - thank you Gisèle.
Dominique Pelicot first came to the attention of the police in September 2020, when supermarket security caught him secretly filming women's skirts.
Police subsequently found his library of homemade images documenting his wife's years of abuse - more than 20,000 photos and videos in total stored on computer drives and cataloged in folders labeled "abuse", "her abusers", "night alone" and more. titles.
The amount of evidence led the police to other defendants. In the videos, investigators counted 72 different perpetrators, but were unable to identify them all.
Although some of those accused – including Dominique Pelicot – pleaded guilty to rape, many did not, even in the face of video evidence. The hearings sparked a wider debate in France about whether the legal definition of rape should be expanded to include specific reference to consent.
Some defendants argued that Dominique Pelicot's consent also extended to his wife. Some tried to excuse their behavior by insisting that they had no intention of raping anyone when they responded to their husband's invitation to come to their home. Some blamed his door, saying he misled them into thinking they were participating in a consensus break.
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