A French court has found Gisèle Pelicot’s ex-husband and multiple other men guilty of rape after a high-profile trial in France, which revealed how she was drugged and rendered unconscious by her spouse in abuse that lasted nearly a decade.
Dominique Pelicot, 72, was found guilty after the three-month trial in the city of Avignon, which ended on Thursday.
A panel of five judges sentenced him to a maximum of 20 years in prison, as requested by prosecutors.
The landmark trial had become closely watched not just by the French public, but by people around the world, after she waived her right to anonymity and a behind-closed-doors trial. She also pushed for chilling videos of the abuse to be shown in court.
The five judges voted by secret ballot, with a majority vote required to convict. The verdicts were read out by the lead judge of the court, Roger Arata.
The trial heard that Gisèle Pelicot, 72, was completely unaware of what had happened until police launched an investigation following her husband’s arrest in September 2020, when he was charged with so-called upskirting offenses in a supermarket.
Detectives later discovered dozens of videos on his laptop showing his wife being sexually assaulted, while unconscious, by 72 different men at the couple’s home in Mazan, near Avignon, between 2011 and October 2020.
Although police counted 72 abusers in the videos, they were unable to identify them all. Along with Dominique Pelicot, 50 men went on trial.
Of the 50 men accused of rape, just one was acquitted but was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault.
It later transpired that Dominique Pelicot had contacted the men through a website shut down by French law enforcement in June 2024.
Dominique Pelicot was also found guilty of offenses involving photographs he took of his daughter, Caroline Darian, 45, and his daughters-in-law, Aurore and Celine.
On Tuesday, he repeated that he had not abused Caroline Darian or his grandchildren. At that point, his daughter interrupted him from the courtroom, shouting that he was a liar.
“You don’t even have the courage to tell the truth! You will die in a lie. You are alone in your lie.”
The trial had a massive impact on France, even before it concluded, with politicians coming under pressure to introduce legislation to protect women.
Last month, the French government announced measures to ensure women had better access to testing facilities if they suspected they may have been drugged.
The move followed campaigning by Darian, and a non-profit, M’Endors Pas (Don’t Put Me To Sleep), which she launched last year.
An amendment to create a pilot scheme offering free blood tests to those who suspected they had been drugged and assaulted was included in the 2025 budget bill, but the legislation was dropped when the prime minister, Michel Barnier, lost a vote of confidence earlier this month.
Several of the men pleaded guilty but many others denied they were guilty of rape.
They offered a variety of excuses, including the mistaken belief that Gisèle Pelicot had consented or that they had been tricked or manipulated by Dominique Pelicot.
None of the men reported Pelicot to the police.
“For me, this is the trial of cowardice, there is no other way to describe it,” Gisèle Pelicot said of their excuses. “When you walk into a bedroom and see a motionless body, at what point [do you decide] not to react? Why did you not leave immediately to report it to the police? They must take responsibility for their actions. They raped. Rape is rape.”
The couple had been married since 1973, and Gisèle Pelicot told the trial she was shocked by the extent of her husband’s betrayal. She has since divorced him.
She said he had always made her meals in the evening and served them with wine, and later raspberry ice cream, and she had no idea he was adding sedatives which rendered her unconscious.
Gisèle Pelicot suffered memory loss on these occasions and her husband had accompanied her to the doctor on several occasions, while tests were done to see if she was suffering from a form of dementia.
At one point in the trial, Dominique Pelicot admitted the full extent of his role, and told the court, “I am a rapist, just like all the others in this room.”
Rapist Says ‘Sorry’
One of the men who took part in the rapes, Lionel Rodriguez, 44, admitted his guilt.
“I am sorry, I can only imagine the nightmare you’ve lived through … and I am part of this nightmare. I know my apologies won’t change what happened, but I wanted to tell you that,” he told Gisèle Pelicot. “I should have checked that she was okay with it. I didn’t talk to her, so I could not get her consent. I feel guilty for what I did.”
Last month prosecutor Laure Chabaud asked for the maximum possible sentence for aggravated rape—20 years—against Dominique Pelicot.
“Twenty years between the four walls of a prison,” Chabaud said. “It’s both a lot and not enough.”
On Dec. 16 Dominique Pelicot apologized to his family.
“I would like to start by hailing the courage of my ex-wife,” he said. “I regret what I did, making [my family] suffer … I ask them for forgiveness.”
Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times