The 72-year-old wanted the trial to be made public because “they should be ashamed”, her tormentors
Years of chilling violence, almost four months of trial and now the sentence: Dominique Pelicot, accused in the trial for the sexual violence against his wife, was sentenced to the maximum sentence of 20 years for aggravated rape and other crimes. The sentence was pronounced in front of him, his wife and their three children. The man was also found guilty of filming and photographing his daughter Caroline and her two nieces sleeping, naked or in underwear. His words: «The deprivation of no longer seeing your family is worse than the deprivation of freedom. I want to tell all my family that I love them, you have the rest of my life in your hands.”
The trial of Giulia Tramontano’s murderer – guard
10 YEARS OF VIOLENCE – Pelicot was accused of having drugged his wife Gisèle for ten years with a drug and of raping her and having her raped by dozens of men while she was unconscious. Along with Dominique, 50 other men were put on trial. 49 of them were convicted of aggravated rape along with Pelicot, and one of sexual assault. 18 defendants pleaded guilty, others admitted to having had group sexual intercourse but without knowing, they say, that she was not consenting (French law requires proof of intent to commit rape). It is estimated that thirty others participated in the violence but were never identified or tried.
Filippo Turetta’s life sentence for the murder of Giulia Cecchettin – guard
AN ICON – Gisèle Pelicot, the victim of the violence, is now 72 years old. She faced the rapists with great courage. She wanted the trial to be public, and that the videos of the sexual violence against her, recorded, preserved and cataloged by her husband, be shown in the courtroom and visible to everyone, because “they should be ashamed, not me”. She therefore became a heroine for the French public.
The trial of Ciro Grillo for sexual assault – guard
THE “MEN NEXT DOOR – The fifty rapists, co-defendants in the Pelicot trial were defined as “men next door”. Ordinary people, with ordinary jobs, sometimes with traumatic childhoods. In French society we question whether what happened is the result of dramatic personal stories or of a patriarchal mentality that saw women as objects with which to have fun, never mind if they are unconscious and not consenting. In this case we are talking about banality or rape culture, which minimizes abuses.
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