Pelicot, along with 50 other men, will face prison for repeatedly raping his wife, Gisèle, over the course of a decade.
Dominique Pelicot has been found guilty on all charges after a historic rape trial that saw the victim, his wife Gisèle Pelicot, elevated to the status of feminist hero.
A court sentenced him to a maximum of 20 years in prison for charges of aggravated rape and attempted rape.
Pelicot pleaded guilty to drugging and raping his wife while unconscious for nearly a decade, inviting other men he had met online to their house to do the same.
Judges also decided all other defendants who participated in Dominique Pelicot’s scheme — a total of 51 standing trial — were guilty of at least one charge.
Speaking outside the court house to reporters, Gisèle Pelicot said the ordeal had been “very difficult.” She also expressed support for other victims of sexual violence. “We share the same fight,” she added.
She said that she had her grandchildren in mind as she endured the more than three months of hearings, saying: “It’s also for them that I led this fight.”
Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, said that she would weigh a possible appeal, but also expressed hope that Gisèle Pelicot would find solace in the court’s rulings.
“I wanted Mrs Pelicot to be able to emerge from these hearings in peace, and I think that the verdicts will contribute to this relief for Mrs Pelicot,” she said.
Of the 50 accused of rape, just one was acquitted, but even he was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault. Another man was also found guilty on the sexual assault charge that he was tried for, meaning all 51 of the defendants were found guilty in one way or another.
Prosecutors had asked that Dominique Pelicot get the maximum penalty of 20 years and for sentences of 10 to 18 years for the others tried for rape.
But the court was more lenient than prosecutors had hoped, with many sentenced to less than a decade in prison.
For the defendants besides Dominique Pelicot, the sentences ranged from three to 15 years’ imprisonment, with some of the sentences suspended. Arata told six defendants they were now free, accounting for time already spent in detention while awaiting trial.
Starting a dialogue
Gisèle Pelicot, who had thought she was in a loving marriage, has stunned France with her openness and courage during the bruising and stunning trial, which has seen the retired energy company worker become nothing less than a national icon.
Dominique Pelicot first came to the attention of police in September 2020, when a supermarket security guard caught him surreptitiously filming up women’s skirts.
Police subsequently searched his electronic devices and found a library of homemade images documenting years of abuse inflicted on his wife — more than 20,000 photos and videos in all, stored on computer drives and catalogued in folders with titles including “abuse”, “her rapists” and “night alone”.
The abundance of evidence led police to the other defendants. In the videos, investigators counted 72 different abusers but were not able to identify them all.
The trial has galvanised campaigners against sexual violence and spurred calls for stricter measures to stamp out rape culture.
Local feminist groups held regular protests on the sidelines of the hearings and displayed slogans in the courthouse’s surrounding streets. They kept up their efforts on Wednesday night before the verdict, hanging a banner along Avignon’s medieval walls reading: “Thanks Gisèle”.
Protesters gathered outside the courthouse again on Thursday, following the proceedings on their phones. Some read out the verdicts and applauded as they were announced inside. Some were carrying oranges as symbolic gifts for the defendants heading to prison.
“I think it has changed society already along these four months,” activist Fanny Fourès said.
“A lot of men, well, they try to speak more with us, with their girlfriends, with their friends,” she added. “There’s a dialogue that started.”
Changing the definition of consent
The 51 men were all accused of having joined Dominique Pelicot in acting out his sordid rape and abuse fantasies, both in the couple’s retirement home in the small Provence town of Mazan and elsewhere.
Dominique Pelicot testified that he drugged his then-wife with tranquilisers hidden in food and drink, knocking her out so profoundly that he could do what he wanted to her for hours.
One of the men was tried not for assaulting Gisèle Pelicot but for drugging and raping his own wife with the assistance of Dominique Pelicot, who was also tried for raping the other man’s wife.
The five judges voted by secret ballot, with majority votes required both to convict and to agree on sentences.
Although some of the accused — including Dominique Pelicot — acknowledged they were guilty of rape, many did not, even in the face of video evidence. The trial has thus sparked a broader debate in France about whether the country’s legal definition of rape should be expanded to require a specific mention of consent.
Some defendants argued that Dominique Pelicot’s consent covered his wife, too, while others sought to excuse their behaviour by insisting that they hadn’t intended to rape anyone when they responded to his invitation.
Still others laid the blame at his door, saying he misled them into thinking they were taking part in a genuinely consensual scenario.
