AVIGNON, France (TIP): A court in France on December 19 sentenced the ex-husband of Gisèle Pelicot to a maximum 20 years of imprisonment for drugging and raping her and allowing other men to rape her while she was knocked out, in abuse that lasted nearly a decade.
The sentence against Dominique Pelicot was declared after he was found guilty of all charges against him. At age 72, it could mean that he spends the rest of his life in prison.
The verdict was read by the lead judge of the court in Avignon, Roger Arata.
Arata read out verdicts one after the other against Pelicot and 50 other men, declaring “you are therefore declared guilty of aggravated rape on the person of Mme. Gisèle Pelicot” as he worked his way through the first names on the list.
Gisèle Pelicot was seated on one side of the courtroom, facing the defendants as Arata announced one guilty verdict after another.
The historic case has profoundly shaken France over the past several months.
Dominique Pelicot admitted that for years he knocked his then wife of 50 years out with drugs so that he and strangers he recruited online could abuse her while he filmed the assaults.
The appalling ordeal inflicted over nearly a decade on Gisèle Pelicot, now a 72-year-old grandmother, in what she thought was a loving marriage and her courage during the bruising and stunning trial have transformed the retired power company worker into a feminist hero of the nation. Stretching over more than three months, the trial galvanized campaigners against sexual violence and spurred calls for tougher measures to stamp out rape culture.
Dominique Pelicot and 49 other men were tried in the southern French city of Avignon for aggravated rape and attempted rape and face up to 20 years imprisonment if convicted.
Prosecutors asked that he get the maximum penalty and for sentences of 10 to 18 years for the others. They also requested a four-year prison term for another defendant who was tried for aggravated sexual assault. Of the 50 men accused of rape, just one was acquitted but was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault. The defendants were all accused of having taken part in Dominique Pelicot’s sordid rape and abuse fantasies that were acted out in the couple’s retirement home in the small Provence town of Mazan and elsewhere. Dominique Pelicot testified that he hid tranquilizers in food and drink that he gave his then wife, knocking her out so profoundly that he could do what he wanted to her for hours.
One of the men was on trial not for assaulting Gisèle Pelicot but for drugging and raping his own wife — with the help and drugs from Dominique Pelicot, who was also tried for raping the other man’s wife. (AP)