Verdicts due for 51 men in Pelicot mass rape trial that shook France

Judges in the French city of Avignon have sentenced Dominique Pelicot to 20 years in prison for aggravated rape after he drugged and abused his then wife, Gisèle Pelicot, and invited dozens of strangers to rape her.

Dominique stood accused alongside 50 other men. Of the 50 co-defendants found guilty, 46 were found guilty of rape, two guilty of attempted rape, and two guilty of sexual assault.

For almost a decade, Gisèle Pelicot was unknowingly given sedatives by her ex-husband, who has admitted to raping her and inviting men he had recruited online to have sex with her in her bed at home while she was unconscious and unaware.

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

It was Gisèle's decision to waive her anonymity and throw this trial into the open - in her words, making "shame swap sides" from the victim to the rapist - something which has turned the 72-year-old into a feminist icon.

Dominique has also been found guilty of attempted aggravated rape of the wife of one of the co-accused, Jean-Pierre Marechal - who admitted drugging and raping his own wife, Cillia, and inviting Dominique to rape her too.

Marechal was found guilty of attempted rape and aggravated rape.

Dominique Pelicot was further convicted of taking indecent images of his daughter, Caroline, and his daughters-in-law, Aurore and Celine.

"I am a rapist," he previously told the judges. "I acknowledge all the facts [of the case] in their entirety." He had begged his ex-wife and three children for forgiveness, but his actions have torn the Pelicot family apart.

Prosecutors had asked for jail sentences for the defendants ranging from four years to 20 years, the maximum sentence for a charge of aggravated rape.

One of the defendants, who has admitted the charges, previously called the trial rushed and "botched".

Campaigners said this case proved the need for consent to be built into France's rape laws, as in other European countries.

From 2011 to 2020, Dominique Pelicot plied his wife with tranquilising drugs and sleeping pills without her knowledge, crushed them into powder and added them to her food and drink.

Gisèle Pelicot suffered memory loss and blackouts because of the drugs and she has spoken of 10 years of her life that have been lost.

He was eventually caught because a security guard reported him to police for taking photographs under women's skirts in a supermarket.

"I thought we were a close couple," she once told the court. Instead, her husband was going on a notorious but now banned website called Coco.fr to invite local men to their home to have sex with her while she was comatose.

"I was sacrificed on the altar of vice," Gisèle Pelicot said early in the trial.

Since the start of September, Judge Roger Arata and his four colleagues have heard how 50 men, now aged between 27 and 74, visited the Pelicots' home in the village of Mazan.

Not only has this case been held in full view of the public, but the evidence against all the accused was recorded on video by Dominique Pelicot at the time and then played out in court.

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

Therefore none of those accused has been able to challenge the allegation that they were in Gisèle Pelicot's room while she was comatose.

Their defence relied on the definition of rape, because it currently involves any kind of sexual penetration "by violence, coercion, threat, or surprise". That means prosecutors needed to prove intent to rape.

Public prosecutor Laure Chabaud told the court that no-one could say any more that "since she didn't say anything, she gave her consent - that belongs to a bygone age".

Thousands of people have joined protests in support of Gisèle Pelicot in France. Women have stood outside the court every day chanting one of the phrases her lawyers said in court: "Shame is changing sides."

As she arrived at court in Avignon on Thursday morning, she was met by a cheering crowd of supporters and international media. Her supporters remained outside after the verdicts were read - singing "from the women of all the world, we thank you".