Gisele Pelicot rape trial: Victim’s powerful message as husband Dominique and 50 others jailed

Gisele Pelicot delivered a powerful message of hope yesterday after her rapist ex-husband was jailed for 20 years following a trial which shocked the world.

The courageous grandmother, whose husband of 50 years Dominique Pelicot drugged her then invited dozens of men to rape her, paid tribute outside court to her children and grandchildren following a four-month trial which laid bare horrific details of the abuse.

Pelicot, dubbed the Monster of Avignon, sobbed as he was handed the maximum sentence by a French court. He admitted serially raping his wife and allowing others to abuse her.

“I am a rapist just like all the others in this room,” he had told the trial, adding: “I ask my wife, my children, my grandchildren to accept my apologies.”

Pelicot, 72, claimed he had a difficult upbringing and had himself been a victim of rape. He said the crimes started after his wife refused to participate in partner swaps and they “became a perversion, an addiction”.

Fifty of the attackers who participated in the sickening abuse, which was filmed by Pelicot, received sentences totalling more than 400 years yesterday – but there was fury that only Pelicot received the maximum term.

In her emotional statement to a large crowd of supporters, Ms Pelicot – who became a feminist icon after waiving her right to anonymity – said: “This trial has been a very difficult ordeal. At this moment, I am thinking first and foremost of my three children: David, Caroline, and Florian. I am also thinking of my grandchildren because they are the future. I also led this fight for them.”

Ms Pelicot, 72, said she stood shoulder-to-shoulder with other rape victims and thanked her many supporters, adding: “I share their struggle.”

And she maintained she was right to waive her anonymity to shine a light on the abuse of women in France.

“When I opened the doors to this trial that began on September 2, I wanted all of society to be a witness to the debates that took place here,” she said.

“I have never regretted that decision.”

One of rapists, identified by French media as Husamettin Dogan, was seen confronting feminist campaigners outside the court. He was sentenced to nine years for aggravated rape but has had his sentence deferred due to a “medical condition”. It is unclear when he will be jailed.

Earlier, the Vaucluse Criminal Court in Avignon was cleared for the final day of the trial. In failing health, Pelicot bent his head and wept as he was sentenced, while his daughter Caroline Darian cursed him from across the court, shouting; “You will die alone like a dog in jail!”

The panel of five professional judges, led by president Roger Arata, ruled that Pelicot would stay behind bars longer if he remained a “security threat”, prompting his lawyer, Maitre Beatrice Zavarro, to suggest later that her client may appeal for a fresh trial in front of a jury.

Prosecutors had argued that he deserved more than the maximum 20 years, given the scale of his depraved crimes.

The retired electrician was found guilty of the aggravated rape of his then-wife, guilty of the attempted aggravated rape of the wife of his “disciple” Jean-Pierre Marechal, and guilty of taking indecent images of his daughter Caroline and his two daughters-in-law.

Wives and girlfriends of some of Pelicot’s 50 accomplices sneaked a final kiss outside the courtroom before they took their seats in the dock, guarded by riot police officers.

The mother of one defendant and the girlfriend of another both wept as their loved ones were sentenced.

The 50 co-accused were all found guilty of raping or abusing Ms Pelicot, while she lay unconscious in the marital bed of the couple’s modest retirement home in Mazan, a picturesque village in Provence.

Pelicot had recruited the men, who lived within a 30-mile radius and came from all walks of life, via an internet site entitled “Without her knowledge”. They included a video store owner, truck driver, two firemen and a nurse.

The youngest defendant, soldier Joan Kawai, was 22 when he raped Ms Pelicot in November 2019, the day his daughter was born. He was sentenced to 10 years in jail.

The oldest offender was 72-year-old Jacques Cubeau, an ex-fireman who was jailed for five years.

Pelicot filmed the abuse of his wife and stored 20,000 images and films on a computer file entitled “abuse”.

He was only stopped when he was arrested in a supermarket for upskirting in 2020.

But the men’s sentences, which ranged from three to 15 years, including two suspended sentences, were condemned by Ms Pelicot’s children as “too lenient”.

Her son, David, called one of his mother’s rapists a “son of a bitch”, as he was given just five years.

Ms Pelicot said she ‘respected’ the verdicts and “respected the court”.

“It’s time that the macho, patriarchal society that trivialises rape changes,” she told the court in her closing remarks. “It’s time we changed the way we look at rape.”

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