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Live Updates: Dominique Pelicot Gets 20-Year Sentence in Rape Trial That Shook France
Catherine Porter, 12/19/24
A court found Mr. Pelicot, 72, guilty after he admitted to drugging and raping his wife, Gisèle, for nearly a decade, and inviting strangers to join him. The case has made her a feminist hero.
Dominique Pelicot, 72, who admitted to drugging his wife for almost a decade and inviting dozens of strangers he met on the internet to join him in violating her, was convicted on Thursday of aggravated rape and other charges and sentenced to the maximum 20 years in prison. The verdict capped a trial that has horrified France, prompted profound discussions about rape culture and toxic masculinity, and turned Gisèle Pelicot, his wife of 50 years, into a feminist hero.
Five judges also convicted the 50 other defendants, with the head judge, Roger Arata, reading out guilty verdicts, one after the other, to a packed courtroom in Avignon, in southern France.
The case has reverberated worldwide as its shocking details came to light. From the moment of his arrest in late 2020, Mr. Pelicot has admitted to crushing sleeping pills into his wife’s food and drink before he and other men raped her as she lay nearly comatose in their bedroom in the town of Mazan. He took thousands of video clips and photos of the encounters, which the police later used to identify and track down the accused.
Ms. Pelicot, 72, waived anonymity to make the trial public, and her poise and courage have made her widely admired in France. Her face has appeared on nightly TV newscasts, the front pages of newspapers, graffitied walls and signs held up by protesters around the country.
Here is what else to know:
* Sentencing: The sentences handed down for the other accused were not as heavy as those recommended by the public prosecutor. Jean-Pierre Maréchal, who pleaded guilty to following Mr. Pelicot’s model and drugging his own wife to rape her, was sentenced to 12 years; the prosecutor had recommended 17. Charly Arbo, a laborer at a cement company who was among the youngest accused, was sentenced to 13 years. The prosecutor had recommended 10- to 18-year terms for most of the accused.
* Criminal code: The trial also set off a fierce debate over the definition of rape in the French criminal code, with some feminist lawmakers arguing that the law should be changed to say explicitly that sex without consent is rape.
* Notorious predator: Judges and lawyers in the trial have tried to grasp the enigma that is Mr. Pelicot. The court heard that he was an attentive grandfather, father and husband who had been besotted with Ms. Pelicot since they met at 19. But therapists testified to another side of him that was perverse, manipulative, incapable of empathy and addicted to sex, and that he said was rooted in a violent childhood.
* Other defendants: The French news media have labeled the 50 other defendants men “Monsieur Tout-le-monde,” or Mr. Every Man, because of how varied and ordinary they appear — short, tall, flabby, lean, cleanshaven, bearded, bald, ponytailed. All but 14 were employed, in jobs that reflect the spectrum of middle- and working-class rural France: truck drivers, carpenters and trade workers, a prison guard, a nurse, an I.T. expert working for a bank, a local journalist.
Related Reportings：
Nader Ibrahim, 12/19/24
The verdict was read out to the crowd gathered outside the courthouse: “The main defendant, Dominique Pelicot, was found guilty of aggravated rape.” Among those gathered were protesters with signs reading “Stop violence against women” and “Justice for Gisèle Pelicot.”
Related Reportings：
Catherine Porter and Ségolène Le Stradic, 12/18/24
Dominique Pelicot, the ex-husband of Gisèle Pelicot, has pleaded guilty to charges of drugging and raping her for almost a decade and arranging for up to dozens of strangers he met online to abuse her unconscious body. His trial, along with that of 50 other men, most charged with aggravated rape, began in Avignon in September. A verdict is expected on Thursday.
Despite Mr. Pelicot’s guilty plea, under the French legal system a trial is held for society to understand the truth of what happened, experts say.
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