LIVE – Mazan rape trial: Dominique Pelicot sentenced to the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison

The court handed down sentences ranging from 3 years in prison, 2 of which were suspended, to 20 years in prison.

Aged 63, he was presented as the “disciple” of Dominique Pelicot. He was the only accused not to appear for acts committed against Gisèle Pelicot, but against his own wife, whom he drugged so that Dominique P. would rape her.

The first sentences handed down for the 50 co-defendants of Dominique Pelicot are, for the moment, very significantly lower than the requisitions which had set the minimum sentence for rape at ten years.

The Vaucluse criminal court sentenced the main accused Dominique Pelicot, the ex-husband of Gisèle Pelicot, to 20 years of criminal imprisonment, following the prosecution’s requisitions. He was found guilty of raping, sedating his wife and giving in to dozens of men, filming her, over ten years. Nearly 200 rapes were recorded.

Joseph C., 69 years old, the only accused prosecuted for the offense of sexual assault and not rape, is found guilty.

Saifedine G., the court reclassified the acts of rape of which he was accused as sexual assault.

The aggravating circumstance of rape or attempted rape “in a meeting” remains applied to all of the accused. On the other hand, the second aggravating circumstance, that of “administration of substance”, is not taken into account. This indicates that the court believes that all the accused were not aware of Gisèle Pelicot’s state of chemical submission.

The court does not recognize the alteration of discernment requested by several defendants.

Dominique Pelicot, the main accused in the Mazan rape trial, was “found guilty” Thursday for having drugged his ex-wife with anxiolytics for a decade before raping her and handing her over to dozens of strangers recruited on the internet.

“Mr. Pelicot, you are found guilty of aggravated rape against the person of Gisèle Pelicot”, declared the president of the criminal court of Vaucluse, Roger Arata, specifying that his sentence will be announced to him a little later in the morning devoted to the verdict of this trial which has become a symbol of the fight against violence against women.

After the entry of Gisèle Pelicot into the court and the cheers, one of the accused, Cyril B, turns to face the public and the media. He gives them the finger.

Voices rise to tell him “Thank you, thank you! Well done ma’am!”. Surrounded by her lawyers, Antoine Camus and Stéphane Babonneau, she smiles at the crowd, thanks her supporters, who came from all over Europe.