Pelicot rape trial latest: Macron thanks Gisèle for ‘dignity and courage’ after ex-husband jailed

Sitting across a courtroom from the husband who drugged and raped her for a decade, along with the 50 other men he invited to join in the attacks, Gisèle Pelicot was the epitome of dignity.

After bravely choosing to waive her right to anonymity, the grandmother has looked each of her rapists in the eye during a gruelling three-month public trial which horrified the world.

The 72-year-old’s remarkable courage in the face of unfathomable abuse and her simple message – that she and other victims of sexual crimes have no reason to feel ashamed – has inspired conversations about rape culture across the globe as she became a symbol of the struggle against sexual violence.

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Dominique Pelicot has been found guilty by a French court of repeatedly drugging and raping his wife for almost a decade, and inviting dozens of strangers to rape her unconscious body in a case that has horrified the world.

All of Pelicot’s 50 co-defendants were also found guilty of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault, while their victim, Gisèle Pelicot, sat in the packed courtroom to hear the sentencing, having waived her right to anonymity.

Gisèle, 72, has become a symbol of female courage and resilience during the three-month trial and crowds of supporters outside the courthouse in the southern city of Avignon cheered as she appeared after the verdicts had been read out.

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French President Emmanuel Macron has praised Gisèle Pélicot for her dignity and courage, and thanked her following her husband’s trial, which has shocked the world.

In a post on social media, he wrote: “Thank you Gisèle Pélicot.

“For this word of justice in the name of which you faced the ordeal with your head held high. For women, who forever have a scout to speak and fight for.

“For all of us, because your dignity and your courage have moved and inspired France and the world.”

Gisèle Pelicot will change the world, the UK’s minister for stopping violence against women and girls has said.

Speaking to The Mirror, Jess Phillips said the 72-year-old deserved “every award” after bravely waiving her anonymity to expose her husband’s crimes.

“The Gisèle Pelicot court case has made the world stand still with horror and respect for her,” she said.

“I think that Gisèle Pelicot deserves every award that could possibly ever be given to her, not because of just her bravery, but because I think her story is going to change the world.”

“Absolutely we will take learnings from the Gisèle Pelicot case. I imagine that’s the same around the world.”

The youngest man to rape Giséle Pelicot after her predator ex-husband drugged her did so on the day his first daughter was born.

Joan Kawai, who has been jailed for 10 years, was just 23 when he visited Ms Pelicot’s family home in southern France to abuse her five years ago.

The former French conscript was among 47 men, including Ms Pelicot’s former husband Dominique Pelicot, convicted of rape at a packed French courthouse on Thursday.

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez has commended the “dignity” of Gisèle Pelicot.

“How much dignity. Thank you, Gisèle Pelicot. Let shame change sides,” he said in a post on X.

Supporters shouted, “Thank you Gisèle” and “Bravo Gisele” as she exited the court. Others applauded and ululated.

After Pelicot was driven away, supporters gathered in a circle and sang songs including the anthem of the women’s liberation movement in the early 1970s.

It was a free chat site with a simple interface allowing users to communicate anonymously.

But the shut-down Coco forum turned into a “den of predators” with it now emerging it was used by Dominque Pelicot to organise the horrifying mass rape of his ex-wife Gisèle.

Pelicot, who was jailed for 20 years on Thursday, co-ordinated his abuse by finding many of the men who raped his wife on the illicit chat site, and then through the platform was able to conceal his crimes.

Inside a packed Vaucluse criminal courtroom in Avignon, 47 men, including Pelicot, were convicted of rape. Two others were found guilty of attempted rape, and another two guilty of sexual assault.

Alexander Butler reports:

The Pelicot mass rape trial which shook France and beyond is challenging the limits of existing legislation, a French legal expert said.

“I was relieved to see that all the accused had been convicted and, secondly, surprised by certain decisions and by the lack of severity (...) of certain decisions,” said Catherine Le Magueresse, a legal expert whose work looks at feminist criticism of law and sexual violence.

“Today the average sentence for rape is around 11 years and a few months, so that means that we are below the average sentence handed down, even though we have been constantly told that this was an extraordinary trial and that the way in which the accused had raped was particularly despicable.”

Le Magueresse said that if French rape law had included the principle of consent, none of the co-accused would have received lighter sentences, a fact she said she found extremely worrying.