By Juliette Jabkhiro
AVIGNON, France (Reuters) – Five French judges will deliver their verdicts on Thursday in a mass rape case against 51 men that has appalled the world and transformed the victim, Gisele Pelicot, into a stirring symbol of courage and resilience.
Pelicot’s ex-husband of 50 years, Dominique Pelicot, has pleaded guilty to drugging her repeatedly for almost a decade to rape her, and to offer up her unconscious body for sex to dozens of strangers he had met online, while videoing the abuse.
Prosecutors have demanded the maximum 20-year prison sentence for him, and terms of between four to 18 years for the other 50 defendants, almost all of whom are accused of raping Pelicot while she lay comatose in her bed.
Pelicot, 72, waived her right to anonymity and asked for the trial to be held in public, with the videos aired in court, saying she hoped this would help other women speak up.
The trial has triggered protest rallies around France in support of Pelicot, and spurred soul-searching, including a debate on whether to update France’s rape law, which at present makes no mention that sex should involve consent.
Many of the accused men have denied the charges, saying they thought it was a consensual sex game orchestrated by the couple and arguing that it was not rape if the husband approved.
Dominique Pelicot has denied misleading the men, saying they knew exactly what they were doing. “I am a rapist like the others in this room,” he said during testimony, apologising to his family and begging for forgiveness.
Gisele has sat resolutely throughout the three-month trial, staring down her abusers with steely determination and scoffing at any claim that she might have been a willing participant.
“I’ve decided not to be ashamed, I’ve done nothing wrong,” she told the court in the southern French city of Avignon in October. “They are the ones who must be ashamed,” she said.
HORRIFYING SECRETS
The defendants come from all walks of life – lorry drivers, soldiers, firefighters, security guards, a supermarket worker, a journalist and the unemployed.
The youngest suspect was just 22 when he entered Pelicot’s bedroom, while the oldest was in his early 70s. Many had children and were in relationships. Most lived within a 50-km (31-mile) radius of the Pelicots’ picturesque village of Mazan, which nestles in vineyards below Mont Ventoux.
The case only came to light in 2020, when Dominique was caught trying to take photographs up the skirts of women in a supermarket. Police then discovered more than 20,000 photos and videos on his computer drives revealing the horrifying secrets that he had hidden from his now ex-wife for a decade.
Police believe 72 men had gone to the house to rape and abuse Gisele, but they were not able to identify them all.
Pelicot acknowledged that he had put powerful tranquillizers into his wife’s food and coffee that put her to sleep for hours. Gisele said she was worried she was developing Alzheimer’s or had a brain tumour because of the memory gaps.
She says she hopes the enormous interest in her case will help other women who have suffered sexual abuse, and brushes off praise for her own bravery in letting the world see her pain.
“It’s not courage. It’s determination to change things,” she told the court in October. “This is not just my battle, but that of all rape victims.”
(Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Alex Richardson)
