France’s AVIGNON After 51 men were found guilty Thursday in the drugging-and-rape trial that captivated France and made her a celebrity, Gis la Pelicot talked about her extremely trying experience and offered support for those victims whose cases don’t receive as much attention and whose tales go unrecorded.
After the court in the southern French city of Avignon handed down prison sentences ranging from three to twenty years in the horrifying case that sparked a national crisis about the plague of rape culture, she remarked, “I want you to know that we share the same fight,” in her opening remarks.
On Thursday, December 19, 2024, Gis le Pelicot addresses the media as she exits the courtroom in the southern French city of Avignon. (Photo by Lewis Joly/AP)
Dominique Pelicot, Pelicot’s ex-husband, and all but one of his co-defendants were found guilty of sexually abusing her over almost ten years after he rendered her unconscious by putting narcotics in her meals and beverages. With Dominique Pelicot’s assistance, the other co-defendant was found guilty of drugging and raping his own wife.
Gis la Pelicot, 72, said, “I am incredibly grateful to everyone who helped me,” as anti-sexual violence protesters gathered outside the courthouse.
I was profoundly touched by your letters, and they gave me the willpower to return each day and endure these drawn-out hearings, she added. This trial was an extremely challenging experience.
After weathering the more than three-month trial, during which she sat in the same courtroom as her attackers, Pelicot, a hero to many in France and beyond, said she was thinking of her grandchildren. She also bravely demanded that all the evidence be heard in open court.
“I led this fight for them as well,” she stated, referring to her grandchildren. I wanted everyone in society to be able to observe the discussions that were held here. I never felt bad about this choice. I believe that we can all work together to envision a time where men and women may coexist peacefully, respectfully, and understandingly. Thank you.
Maximum punishment for her former spouse
Dominique Pelicot was given the maximum punishment of 20 years in jail after the court found him guilty on all counts. He could be imprisoned for the rest of his life at 72. He must serve at least two-thirds of his sentence before he may ask for early release.
After more than an hour, head judge Roger Arata read out the judgments and punishments, and Dominique Pelicot and the other defendants stood up one by one.
When verdicts were announced, Gis la Pelicot occasionally nodded her head.
Batrice Zavarro, Dominique Pelicot’s attorney, stated that while she would take an appeal into consideration, she also hoped that Gis le Pelicot would find comfort in the decisions.
I wanted Mrs. Pelicot to be able to leave these proceedings in peace, and I believe the judges’ decisions will help her feel better, she said.
Some sentences are condemned by supporters as being too low.
Only one of the 50 rape suspects was found not guilty; the others were found guilty of aggravated sexual assault. Another man was convicted of the charge of sexual assault for which he was prosecuted, resulting in a total of 51 guilty verdicts.
In a side room where defendants’ family members watched the proceedings on television screens, some burst into tears and gasped as sentences were revealed.
Outside the courthouse, demonstrators used their phones to track the events. As the verdicts were announced inside, some people cheered and read them aloud. But disquiet grew as many of the sentences were lower than campaigners had hoped for, and cries of shame on the justice system! rose up from the crowd.
In addition to the 20 years they sought for Dominique Pelicot, prosecutors asked for sentences of 10 to 18 years for the others charged with rape. But the court was more lenient, with many defendants getting less than a decade in prison. The five judges voted by secret ballot, by majority for the convictions and sentences.
For the defendants other than Dominique Pelicot, sentences ranged from three to 15 years imprisonment, with some of the time suspended for some of them. Arata told six defendants they were now free, accounting for time already spent in pretrial detention.
Sophie Burtin, 53, who traveled from Lyon to show support for Gis le Pelicot, said the trial brought the subject of rape out into open but expressed disappointment that the sentences aren t at all exemplary.
Some men will think, OK, it s all right, what they did wasn t really a rape, she said. The message that s sent is, Is it really serious? with sentences that are so light. For me, It was meant to be a historic trial, but the feeling I have is that history hasn t been made.
Who is Gis le Pelicot?
Gis le Pelicot s courage during the bruising trial and her appalling ordeal, inflicted on the retired power company worker in what she had thought was a loving marriage, galvanized campaigners and spurred calls for tougher measures to stamp out rape culture.
She waived her right to anonymity as a survivor of sexual abuse and successfully pushed for the hearings and shocking evidence including her ex-husband s homemade videos of the rapes to be heard in open court, insisting that shame should fall on her abusers, not her.
The hearings fueled conversations on a national level in France and among families, couples and friends about how to better protect women and the role that men can play.
Men are starting to talk to women their girlfriends, mothers and friends in ways they hadn t before, said Fanny Foures, 48, who joined other women in gluing messages of support for Gis le Pelicot on walls around Avignon before the verdict.
It was awkward at first, but now real dialogues are happening, she said.
Some women are realizing, maybe for the first time, that their ex-husbands violated them, or that someone close to them committed abuse, Foures added. And men are starting to reckon with their own behavior or complicity things they ve ignored or failed to act on. It s heavy, but it s creating change.
A banner that campaigners hung on a city wall opposite the courthouse read, MERCI GISELE thank you Gis le.
Ex-husband s sordid images
The defendants strangers Dominique Pelicot recruited online were all accused of having taken part in his sordid rape and abuse fantasies that he acted out with them and filmed in the couple s retirement home in the small Provence town of Mazan and elsewhere.
He first came to the attention of police in September 2020 when a supermarket security guard caught him surreptitiously filming up women s skirts.
Police subsequently found his library of images documenting years of abuse more than 20,000 photos and videos in all, stored on computer drives and catalogued in folders marked abuse, her rapists, night alone and other titles.
The abundant evidence led police to the other defendants. In the videos, investigators counted 72 different abusers, but weren t able to identify them all.
Although some of the accused including Dominique Pelicot acknowledged that they were guilty of rape, many didn t.
Some argued that Dominique Pelicot s consent covered his wife, too. Some insisted that they hadn t intended to rape anyone when they responded to the husband s invitations to come to their home. Some laid blame at his door, saying he misled them into thinking they were taking part in consensual kink.
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