Dominique Pelicot jailed for 20 years over rape of his wife

A French court convicted the former husband of Gisele Pelicot and dozens of other men of raping her after he drugged her unconscious, ending a trial that shocked the conscience of a nation.

Gisele Pelicot outside the court in Avignon, France, on Thursday. Picture: Getty Images

A French court convicted the former husband of Gisele Pelicot and dozens of other men of raping her after he testified to drugging her unconscious for years and recruiting the men as accomplices, ending a trial that transformed the 72-year-old woman into a feminist icon and shocked the conscience of a nation.

A panel of judges on Thursday found Dominique Pelicot, 72, guilty of raping his wife, drugging her and inviting dozens of men to abuse her over a 10-year period. The judges also found him guilty of taking sexual images of his daughter and his two daughters-in-law; and of raping the wife of one of the other men on trial after conspiring with the man to drug her.

He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, the maximum for rape under French law. Of the 50 men on trial with Dominique Pelicot, 48 were also convicted of rape, one of attempted rape and one of sexual assault. They received sentences that ranged from three to 15 years in prison.

Except for Dominique Pelicot, the sentences handed down by the judges were significantly lower than sought by prosecutors. In practice, the men will serve far less time in prison because of provisions in French law that allow judges to shorten sentences and free convicts to complete their sentences outside prison. Some of the men convicted on Thursday remained free, having already served enough time in prison, the judges said.

Pelicot testified during the trial that he recruited men to have sex with his wife over a website that was long a magnet of criminal activity before French authorities shut it down this year.

The men, ranging in age from 27 to 74, came from across southeast France to the couple’s home in Mazan, a town amid vineyards near Avignon. There they found Gisele Pelicot completely unconscious, her husband and other defendants testified, after her husband slipped high doses of sleeping pills into her food or drink. Dominique Pelicot filmed the encounters, videos that became pivotal evidence in the trial.

Gisele Pelicot had the right to keep the trial closed to the public, but she opened it up to shed light on the problem of sexual violence and what is known here as “chemical submission”: men drugging women and sexually assaulting them without their knowledge.

“This trial has been a difficult test,” Gisele Pelicot said outside the courtroom after the verdicts. “I am thinking of the unrecognised victims whose stories live in the shadows. I want you to know we share the same fight.”

The trial transfixed France for months, with some commentators labelling the 51 men accused of raping or sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot “Monsieur Tout-le-Monde”, or “Mr Everyman”, suggesting their actions were an indictment of the misogynist attitudes of men at large.

A more complicated portrait emerged during the trial. Around half were married or in relationships at the time of their arrest, and two-thirds of them are parents. Many were employed in working-class jobs in the idyllic towns and small cities of Provence. Some professed happy childhoods that would offer little explanation of why they chose to have sex with an unconscious woman.

Others testified to having dark pasts, including histories of violence against women and criminal convictions. Around half suffered abuse or trauma dating back to childhood.

Ahead of the verdict, a large crowd gathered outside the courthouse in Avignon, a concrete-and-glass building next to the medieval walls of the city. They held signs of support for Gisele Pelicot, and a banner was draped on the walls, reading: “Thank you Gisele.”

Gisele Pelicot insisted the trial remain open even when prosecutors decided it was necessary to play the videos of the alleged rapes in court to refute the defendants’ contention that she might only have been pretending to be asleep. The chief judge, Roger Arata, would issue a habitual warning: “These images are particularly offensive to the dignity of the human person.”

In the videos, the defendants and Dominique Pelicot can be seen manipulating her motionless body into graphic sex acts, while she is heard snoring loudly.

The Wall Street Journal