Serial rapes in France: 20 years in prison for Dominique Pelicot

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 of serial rapes with worldwide repercussions, which became 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 Roger Arata, to the man who drugged his now ex-wife Gisèle for a decade with 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. Dazedthe main accused 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.

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

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 affects women all over the world, that’s why the whole world is watching what’s going to happen.explained to AFP a representative of the feminist collective Amazones d’Avignon, while 180 media, including 86 foreigners, were present on site 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.

A courthouse under heavy police protection

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, had hoped that the court’s decision would go beyond the fate of these accused 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 speak monsterthe loup or even the ogre Dominique Pelicot. So without success.

The tension was palpable in the courtroom, where a large police force had been deployed. Found guilty, several of the 32 accused who appeared free should in fact 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.

An extraordinary trial

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 also made it possible to embody the scourge of sexual violence, through the figure of Gisèle Pelicot, who from an anonymous victim transformed over the weeks into a feminist icon exhorting women to stop being silent so that shame changes sides.

Thank you Gisèleproclaimed a banner hung on the ramparts of the old town of Avignon Thursday morning, facing the court.