Gisèle Pelicot rape trial latest: Security guard who caught Dominique says he saw ‘fear in his eyes’

A group of Gisele Pelicot's Australian admirers have said they're moved that the victim in France's drugging-and-rape case has acknowledged her distant supporters Down Under by wearing a scarf adorned with Aboriginal art.

The 72-year-old who refused to remain an anonymous victim wore the silk scarf several times during the court process in Avignon, including when 51 men were convicted and sentenced to prison for molesting her after she had been drugged by her former husband, Dominique Pelicot.

The scarf was a 220 Australian dollar (£109) gift from a Sydney-based rights advocacy group, Older Women's Network, its chief executive Yumi Lee said.

"We were astounded, absolutely gobsmacked, honored that she accepted our gesture of solidarity," Ms Lee said.

Ms Lee, 59, said her group with 1,000 members across New South Wales state in Australia, who campaign on issues including sexual violence, raised donations to buy the scarf in September when the court case was already underway.

They decided on the gesture because Avignon, 11,000 miles from Sydney, was too distant for most to travel to demonstrate their support in person, Ms Lee said.

Gisele Pelicot "has said that shame has to change sides and she wants all the victims of sexual assault to think that if she can do it, they can too," Ms Lee said.

"She has also proven that sexual assault knows no barriers. Everyone from young to old are victims of sexual assault. So she's busted that myth.”

When Gisèle Pelicot was called to talk to police in November 2020, she believed it was to discuss the upskirting allegations made against her husband of 50 years.

Referring to him as a “super guy”, she had no awareness that detectives were about to blow apart her seemingly idyllic life with Dominique Pelicot, who she had met at the age of 19.

When he was arrested at a shopping centre two months previously for covertly trying to take pictures up women’s skirts, police had decided to seize his phones and computer.

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Gisèle Pelicot’s ex-husband Dominique was sentenced for repeatedly drugging and raping his wife for almost a decade, and inviting dozens of strangers to rape her unconscious body

The court found 46 of the other defendants guilty of rape, two guilty of attempted rape and two guilty of sexual assault, handing down sentences of between three and 15 years in jail, less than the four-to-18 years demanded by the prosecution.

Among them is Jean-Pierre Marechal who has been jailed for 12 years after being found guilty of attempted rape and aggravated rape of his wife, as well as drugging her.

He is only one of the 51 who was not accused of raping or attempting to rape Gisèle, but the 63-year-old admitted to following Dominique Pelicot’s lead by drugging his own wife for five years, raping her and inviting Dominique to rape her too.

All the defendants have 10 days to decide whether to appeal, and Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer said he was considering this option.

isèle Pelicot believes that change is possible. Speaking outside the courtroom in Avignon this morning, where her ex-husband Dominique Pelicot was jailed for 20 years for drugging her and recruiting strangers to rape her, she said she “never regretted” her selfless decision to waive her right to private legal proceedings. She believed it was important for “society to see what is happening”. That visibility, she realised, despite the enormous personal cost, was vital in order for real change to happen. “I do it on behalf of all women,” she has said.

Today, France’s worst-ever mass rape trial saw 51 men convicted for a total of 428 years. Dominique Pelicot was jailed for the maximum term of 20 years, having drugged his wife so he and strangers could abuse and rape her while he filmed it. Police found some 20,000 images of the abuse on his computer, as well as pictures of his daughter and his two daughters-in-law.

In a case that sent shock waves around the world, Gisèle Pelicot emerged as an almost unimaginably courageous symbol of feminist resistance against rape culture. Her insistence that shame must “change sides” has reverberated internationally, challenging deeply misogynistic assumptions about sexual violence in France and far beyond, galvanising feminist movements, inspiring male allies to speak out and, above all, providing solace and strength to fellow survivors.

So great has the impact been, that since Time magazine announced Donald Trump as its Person of the Year, social media has been flooded with posts, mainly created by women, suggesting that the title should have been awarded to Gisèle Pelicot instead.

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The security guard who caught Dominique Pelicot upskirting women at a supermarket, which led to the discovery of his heinous crimes, has recalled the “terror” in his eyes.

Thibaut Rey, 38, had been working at the LeClerc shopping centre on 12 September 2020 when his colleague radioed him to say that Pelicot was acting suspiciously on the shop floor. He realised that the serial rapist had positioned his mobile phone to slyly take pictures of women’s underwear, and confronted him.

“We saw him do this to three women, and he was obviously pretty good at it. It didn’t look like the first time he had done it,” he told the Daily Mail.

After a short while, M.Rey confronted Pelicot as he was filming a woman, grabbed his phone and held him until police came to make their arrest.

“I told her: ‘If you don’t press charges, he will just go home and do this again.’ I was thinking of my mother and sister, who shop here, so it got a bit personal,” he said. “Pelicot didn’t resist. He froze with terror. I saw the fear in his eyes.”

Pelicot’s wife Gisèle, who was drugged repeatedly while her husband allowed other men to rape her, has met with M.Rey to thank him, and the guard has now been awarded France’s highest commendation, the Legion d’Honneur.

“My mother tells me every morning that I’m a hero, but for me the only satisfaction is that Madame Pelicot’s Calvary has come to an end, and that I may have helped to stop it,” he reflects.

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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