Here’s what you need to know about the serial rape trial

Judges in the French city of Avignon have found Dominique Pelicot guilty of aggravated rape in a serial rape trial that turned the 72-year-old woman into a feminist icon.

The verdict on 50 other men also charged is being passed.

For nearly a decade, Gisèle Pelicot was drugged by her ex-husband Dominique, who admitted to raping her and inviting dozens of men he recruited online to have sex with her in bed at home while she unconscious and unaware.

She decided to give up her identity and make this trial public – in her words, causing the “shame to switch sides” from the victim to the rapist.

Although Dominique Pelicot admitted the charges against him, most of the other men on trial denied what they did was rape.

Dominique was also convicted of attempted aggravated rape of another man’s wife.

Prosecutors had asked for a prison sentence of between four and 20 years, the maximum sentence for aggravated rape.

One of the defendants, who admitted the charges, said the trial was rushed and “a failure”.

Campaigners say the case demonstrates the need for consent to be included in French rape laws, as in other European countries.

From 2011 to 2020, Dominique Pelicot provided his wife with sedatives and sleeping pills without her knowledge, ground them into powder, and added them to her food and drink.

Gisèle Pelicot suffered from drug-induced amnesia and amnesia and she tells of the 10 years of her life she lost.

He was eventually arrested because a security guard reported him to the police for taking pictures up a woman’s skirt in a supermarket.

She once said in court: “I thought we were a close couple. Instead, her husband accessed a notorious but now banned website called Coco.fr to invite local men to their home to have sex with her while she was in a coma.

“I have been sacrificed on the altar of sin,” Gisèle Pelicot said at the beginning of the trial.

Since early September, Judge Roger Arata and four of his colleagues have heard that 50 men, now aged between 27 and 74, have visited the Pelicans’ home in the village of Mazan.

Dominique Pelicot has admitted to all the charges against him – drugging, raping his wife and recruiting dozens of men to rape her. Prosecutors wanted judges to give him the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for aggravated rape.

“I am a rapist,” he told the judges. “I admit all the facts [of the case] complete.” He asked his ex-wife and three children for forgiveness, but his actions left the Pelicot family devastated.

The other defendants came from all walks of life and most of them lived within a 50 km (30 mi) radius of the Pelicans village of Mazan. The fact that they were firefighters, security guards and truck drivers earned them the name Monsieur-Tout-Le-Monde (Mr Everyman). Most of them also have children.

50 of the 51 people were charged with aggravated rape and attempted rape.

Romain V, 63, could face up to 18 years in prison if convicted. He was accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot six separate times while learning he was HIV-positive. His lawyer said he could not have transmitted the infection because he had been in treatment for many years.

Another 10 men could face sentences of 15-17 years and prosecutors are seeking 10-14 years in prison for 38 others.

Before the sentencing, one of the few men to admit rape told the BBC through his daughter that many had made up their minds immediately: “There wasn’t enough time. For me, it was work.” failure.”

According to the French Ministry of Justice, the average prison term for rape in France is 11.1 years.

A man was charged with aggravated sexual assault and rape. Prosecutors said Joseph C, a retired sports coach and grandfather of 69, faces a minimum sentence of four years in prison.

Some of them have apologized for their behavior, but many have not.

Cyril B says he’s sorry for Gisèle Pelicot.

“I’m ashamed of myself, I’m disgusted,” Jean-Pierre M said this week. His lawyer hopes that the judges will consider his remorse.

Not only was this case exposed to the public, but the evidence against all the defendants was also recorded on video by Dominique Pelicot at the time and later presented in court.

Gisèle Pelicot, who divorced her husband, said the men “treated me like a rag doll”. “Don’t talk to me about the sex scenes. These are rape scenes,” she said.

Therefore, none of the defendants can object to the allegation that they were in Gisèle Pelicot’s room while she was in a coma.

Their defense relied on the definition of rape, as it currently involves any form of sexual penetration “by violence, coercion, threat or surprise”. That means prosecutors must prove intent to rape.

Prosecutor Laure Chabaud told the court that no one could add that “because she said nothing she agreed – that belongs to a bygone era”.

Thousands of people participated in protests supporting Gisèle Pelicot in France. And women stood outside the courthouse every day chanting one of the phrases her lawyer said in court: “Shame is switching sides.”

Gisèle Pelicot attended most days of the trial, appearing in court wearing sunglasses just before nine o’clock.

Her decision to give up her identity was highly unusual, but she stood her ground. “I want all the women who have been raped to say: Mrs. Pelicot did it, I can do it too.”

But she has made it clear that behind her exterior of strength “lies a field of desolation” and despite widespread acclaim for what she has done, she remains a reluctant hero.

Her lawyer, Stéphane Babonneau, told the BBC’s Emma Barnett: “She kept repeating: ‘I’m normal’. She doesn’t want to be seen as an icon.”

“Women often have a strength that they can’t even imagine and they have to believe in themselves. That’s her message.”

Lawyers for the 51 defendants have emphasized the normal lives they led, although court-appointed psychiatrist Laurent Layet testified that they were neither normal people nor “monsters.” .

In the early weeks of the trial, the mayor of Mazan village told the BBC that the case could have been much more serious because no one died.

But the comments caused an outcry across France and the mayor quickly apologised. He has since said he will retire from public life.

The fact that the trial was held in public meant that each hearing was reported in full and detailed detail.

Elsa Laboret of the activist group Dare to be a Feminist told the BBC: “[Gisèle Pelicot] Decide to make this bigger than yourself. To make this about how we, as a society, treat sexual violence.”