Mazan rape trial | The 51 accused found guilty, Dominique Pelicot sentenced to 20 years in prison

(Avignon) French justice on Thursday sentenced Dominique Pelicot to the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and declared all of his 50 co-defendants guilty, after four months of a historic trial for serial rapes with worldwide repercussions, become a symbol of violence against women.

“Mr. Pelicot, you are found guilty of aggravated rape against the person of Gisèle Pelicot,” declared the president of the criminal court of Vaucluse (south-east of France), Roger Arata, to the man who drugged his now ex -marries Gisèle for a decade on anxiolytics, to make her his sexual object and deliver her to dozens of men recruited on the internet.

Following the request of the prosecution, he sentenced Dominique Pelicot to the maximum possible sentence for aggravated rape, namely 20 years of criminal imprisonment, with a two-thirds security period. “Dazed”, the main accused, aged 72, does not rule out appealing, according to his lawyer.

For his 50 co-defendants, men aged 27 to 74, none of whom were acquitted, the magistrate then listed the sentences imposed one by one. These range from three years, two of which are suspended, to 20 years in prison.

Gisèle Pelicot’s children said they were “disappointed” with the sentences imposed on the 51 accused, commented a family member who asked to remain anonymous. None of the family members wanted to speak to Dominique Pelicot after his conviction: “there is no question of it”, declared this same source.

At the end of November, the public prosecutor had requested 10 to 18 years’ imprisonment against 49 of the co-defendants, tried for aggravated rape or attempted rape, and four years in prison against the last one, prosecuted for “touching” Gisèle Pelicot.

Where to shock

These requisitions were more severe than the average sentence for rape in France, which was 11.1 years in 2022, according to the French Ministry of Justice.

“Rape concerns women all over the world, that’s why the whole world has its eyes on what is going to happen,” explained to AFP a representative of the feminist collective Amazones d’Avignon, while 180 media, including 86 foreigners, were present to cover the event.

After three and a half months of hearings, the Vaucluse criminal court left to deliberate on Monday morning, after giving the floor to the 51 accused one last time.

The couple’s three children, David, Caroline and Florian, arrived together at the court on Thursday around 8:30 a.m. local time, pushing through a crowd of spectators, activists and journalists. Their mother Gisèle arrived separately and smiling, to cheers, a little after 9 a.m., accompanied by her two lawyers.

This decision, in an Avignon courthouse under heavy police protection, was closely scrutinized, in France and abroad, as this trial has caused a shock wave since its opening on September 2, casting a harsh light on the scourge of sexist and sexual violence or chemical submission and more broadly raised the question of consent in male-female relationships.

In her indictment, Laure Chabaud, one of the two representatives of the public prosecutor’s office, hoped that the court’s decision would overcome the fate of these defendants and send “a message of hope to victims of sexual violence”.

Conversely, the defense lawyers had made around thirty requests for acquittal for their clients who, according to them, were “manipulated” by the “monster”, the “wolf” or even the “ogre” Dominique Pelicot. So without success.

“Thank you Gisèle”

The tension was palpable in the courtroom, where a large police force was deployed. Found guilty, several of the 32 accused who appeared free should sleep Thursday evening behind bars.

Ready for this eventuality, most had arrived at the hearing with a bag containing some clothes, noted an AFP journalist. In tears, one of them hugged his partner for a long time before entering the room.

Unusual in terms of its duration, the number of accused, but above all the atrocity of the alleged acts, this trial has already made history. In the ranks of feminist associations and civil parties, there is great hope of seeing it change mentalities regarding rapes, attempted rapes and sexual assaults reported each year by more than 200,000 women in France.

This affair will also have made it possible to embody the scourge of sexual violence, through the figure of Gisèle Pelicot, 72 years old, who from an anonymous victim has transformed over the weeks into a feminist icon urging women “to no longer be silent » so that “shame changes sides”.

“Thank you Gisèle”, proclaimed a banner hung on the ramparts of the old town of Avignon on Thursday morning, facing the court.