Pelicot rape trial: Gisèle ‘never regretted decision to go public’ as sobbing ex-husband jailed for 20 years

Crowds outside the court were chanting “shame on the justice system” as some of the sentences were read out.

There is dismay among many outside the court on the length of some of the sentences - which are mostly shorter than prosecutors had demanded.

Prosecutors had demanded sentences of 652 years, but judges issued total sentences of 428 years.

Christelle Vidaller, 35, has been waiting outside the court since 9am. She told Reuters news agency that she was disappointed with the sentences.

“It’s a historical trial, we were expecting historical sentences,” she told Reuters.

The phrase “angry woman” is bandied around as some kind of insult; spat out in the same breath as “angry feminist” or “bra burner” or “calm down, dear”. We’re meant to feel ashamed by the accusation, timid, cowed. We’re meant to retreat into ourselves and shut up. Well, not anymore.

Angry woman? You bet. We are livid. I, personally, am baseball-bat-to-a-glass-window furious that in the past week alone, we’ve seen headlines describing an incredibly courageous woman – Gisele Pelicot – whose life as she knew it disintegrated in 2020 when she discovered her husband had been drugging her and inviting strangers to rape her for years in her own home, while filming it – as “taking public revenge on men”. It’s not revenge to tell the truth. It is bravery. It is justice.

Victoria Richards writes:

In an unusual move, Gisèle Pelicot waived her anonymity as a victim of rape, in the hope that it would encourage other victims of rape and sexual abuse to step forward.

Speaking during the trial, Ms Pelicot said: “For me this is the trial of cowardice, there is no other way to describe it.

“When you walk into a bedroom and see a motionless body, at what point (do you decide) not to react,” she addressed the men in the courtroom. She said there was no excuse for abusing her when she was unconscious.

“Why did you not leave immediately to report it to the police?,” she asked. “It is time for society to look at this macho, patriarchal society and change the way it looks at rape.”

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.

The 50 men on trial for raping unconscious grandmother Gisèle Pelicot in a ten-year campaign of sordid secret attacks orchestrated by her husband have been dubbed “Monsieur Tout-le-monde” — Mr Everyman.

They are men of all walks of life, ranging in age from 27 to 74, who answered Dominique Pelicot’s invitation to abuse his drugged wife in an online chatroom.

On Friday a French court found 47 men guilty of rape, two guilty of attempted rape and two guilty of sexual assault.

Most lived in south-eastern France within a 60km radius of the village of Mazan, where the Pelicots retired. One, Simoné Mekenes, 43, was their next door neighbour.

They include a firefighter, a journalist, a nurse, a prison guard and a construction worker. Some are retired, some are unemployed and three quarters have families of their own.

Crime correspondent Amy-Clare Martin profiles each of the 51 men convicted in France’s worst mass rape case:

Journalist Nicholas François, 42, claimed in court that he wanted to “try other things” after a difficult break-up with his ex-partner.

He was sentenced to eight years in prison and banned from working near children, after he was found guilty of aggravated rape and possessing child abuse imagery.

François told the court only went to the house with the aim of having a homosexual relationship with Dominique Pelicot.

Pelicot assured François that his wife would wake up after he started performing sexual acts on her, he said according to French outlet Liberation. He claimed he “mimed” the penetration.

François also denied possessing child pornography images which were found deleted on three USB sticks and a computer. "I deny having possessed and even more so being attracted to children," he insisted to the court.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz has thanked Gisèle Pelicot for her courage.

In a post on X, he wrote: “The shame must change sides. Thank you, Gisèle #Pelicot ! You courageously went from anonymity to public and fought for justice.

“You gave women around the world a strong voice. The shame always lies with the perpetrator.”