 "Dominique Pelicot & 50 others: The men convicted in the Gisèle Pelicot mass rape trial in France")
Shame has changed sides. Dominique Pelicot has been sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment for drugging and raping his ex-wife, Gisèle Pelicot, by a court in France. All 50 other men who were on trial, along with Dominique, have also been found guilty.
On Thursday (December 19), a panel of five judges found 47 of the defendants guilty of rape, two guilty of attempted rape and two guilty of sexual assault.
The mass rape case that horrified France and shocked the world has turned Gisèle Pelicot into a symbol of courage and resilience. The men who raped her came from all walks of life such as lorry drivers, soldiers, security guards, a journalist and a DJ.
Here’s a look at who they are.
Dominique Pelicot
Dominique Pelicot , 72, admitted to drugging and raping his wife of 50 years and offering an unconscious Gisèle to dozens of men to rape her.
Dominique, a construction supervisor, real estate agent and salesman, solicited dozens of strangers from 2011 to 2020 in the village of Mazan, in Provence, to rape his wife while she was sedated and unconscious.
He contacted men on an online chatroom titled “without her knowledge” to invite them to come to the couple’s home in Mazan to rape his wife after mixing sleeping tablets and anti-anxiety medication into her food and drink that left her unconscious.
“I know I’m going to get 20 years, I’ve lost everything,” Dominique told the court. “I’ll die alone like a dog.”
He pleaded guilty saying: “I’m a rapist and so are all of them,” referring to the other 50 men who were on trial.
Dominique has been sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in jail. He was found guilty of aggravated rape of his ex-wife, and the attempted aggravated rape of the wife of one of the co-accused, Jean Pierre Marechal.
He has also been found guilty of taking and distributing sexual images of his adult daughter, Caroline, and his daughters-in-law, Aurore and Celine.
Dominique Pelicot has been in jail since November 4, 2020. At age 72, it is likely he will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Jean-Pierre Marechal
Jean-Pierre Marechal, a former lorry driver for an agricultural cooperative in southern France, has been found guilty of attempted rape and aggravated rape of his wife.
Dubbed as Dominique Pelicot’s “disciple”, Marechal sedated and raped his own wife and even enlisted Pelicot to rape her with him.
As per The Guardian, Marechal came into contact with Dominique on the online chatroom “without her knowledge”. Pelicot allegedly provided the 63-year-old drugs to sedate his wife, told him the technique and then went to rape her himself.
Marechal’s wife was raped 12 times between 2015 and 2020. He admitted the charges in the court.
Marechal was the only defendant not accused of raping or assaulting Gisèle Pelicot.
Charly Arbo
Charly Arbo was 22 when he first went to Pelicots’ home for the first time to rape Gisèle Pelicot, who was 64 then, in January 2016.
He returned five more times, between December 2018 and June 2020.
Arbo denied the charges during the trial, saying: “I was told it was a scenario in which she was asleep. In that scenario, she was consenting. For me, I didn’t intend to rape. I didn’t want to rape her; I didn’t want to do something bad to that family.”
When Arbo, who had worked as a vineyard worker, was asked by Dominique whether there is another woman he would like to rape or see raped, he suggested his own mother “because it was the only woman who came to mind”.
He said he did not go through with it and made excuses.
Arbo, now 30, has been found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Joan Kawai
Joan Kawai, a 26-year-old soldier in the French military, raped Gisèle Pelicot on two separate visits to her home in 2019 and 2020.
He told the court: “I’m a rapist because the law says I am” – but he said he did not intend to rape and “at the time I did not know what consent was”.
Kawai was absent for the premature birth of his daughter on the night he sexually assaulted Gisèle Pelicot in her home for the first time in 2019.
He has been discharged from the army.
The court in Avignon found him guilty of aggravated rape, sentencing him to 10 years in prison.
Nicolas François
A 42-year-old freelance journalist said he got up and logged into the hook-up website Coco “every morning” to try to “find a sexual partner”. This is where he came into touch with Dominique Pelicot.
François claimed he went to Pelicots’ home in 2018 for a homosexual encounter with Dominique, who denied this.
Video evidence showed him on a bed with Gisèle Pelicot.
He dismissed the rape charge but conceded that he “should never have walked through the door”, reported The Telegraph.
Investigators discovered child pornography on USB sticks at his home for which he was charged. He denied downloading it himself.
Francois has been sentenced to eight years for aggravated rape and possessing child abuse imagery. He has also been banned from working in jobs with children for several years, as per BBC.
Mohamed Rafaa
Mohamed Rafaa, 70, the Moroccan-born man is a former discotheque worker from La Rochelle. In 1999, he was sentenced to five years in prison for raping his 17-year-old daughter.
Rafaa was charged with raping Gisèle Pelicot in May 2019 at the holiday home of her daughter on the Île de Ré in the west of France.
Denying that he raped Gisèle, he told the court: “I couldn’t imagine for a fraction of a second that Dominique Pelicot did that without his wife knowing.”
He has been found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to eight years.
Redouan El Farihi
The 55-year-old worked as a community nurse in Avignon.
Born in Morocco, Redouan El Farihi went to Mazan on the night of June 8, 2019 to rape Gisèle Pelicot at her home. He said Dominique Pelicot had told him that his wife would “pretend” to be asleep, as per The Telegraph.
He claimed in the trial that he was a “victim of a trick” and had been too “terrified” of Dominique to leave.
“What I did was out of fear, to not frustrate him, he seemed like a psychopath.” However, the video evidence showed otherwise.
A trained anaesthesia nurse, he said he thought Gisèle Pelicot was pretending to be dead “but never that she’d been drugged”.
El Farihi has been sentenced to eight years in prison for aggravated rape.
Karim Sebaoui
Karim Sebaoui, a computer expert with two university degrees, were aware that Gisèle Pelicot was unconscious. As per The Telegraph, he asked Dominique Pelicot in a Skype chat on June 27, 2020: “Is the sleeping pill working?”
He raped Gisèle on June 27 of that year at the Pelicots’ home. Sebaoui told the court of the night: “I did not go there with the aim of committing a crime and I had absolutely no idea that Mrs Pelicot was not consenting.”
He is also charged with possessing child abuse imagery found on his computer. The 40-year-old claimed he had downloaded it “inadvertently”.
Dominique contacted him again but he refused to return as the June encounter had been “too bizarre for me”.
Sebaoui has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for aggravated rape and possessing child abuse imagery.
Quentin Hennebert
Quentin Hennebert, a prison warden, said he came into contact with Dominique Pelicot on the Coco website where he had sold drugs.
Dominique Pelicot told the 34-year-old he had a female “friend” who “had a fantasy about playing the sleeping woman”.
Hennebert travelled to Mazan on the night of November 30, 2019. He said he realised later that “something wasn’t right”.
“The scene was bizarre. [Gisèle Pelicot] had no normal reaction…It was only halfway through that I realised something was wrong. She’s the victim, I have no excuse,” Hennebert told the court.
Hennebert has been found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to seven years in prison.
Cyrille Delville
Cyrille Delville admitted raping Gisèle Pelicot in her home in September 2019.
The 54-year-old said he had realised later that Gisèle had not consented. “I did what [her husband] wanted, I don’t know why. I couldn’t stop. I was disconnected.”
He told the court that while in prison on remand he had understood that “women do not belong to men”.
Delville, who had a violent childhood, had a partner of 32 years with whom he shared two children.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Vincent Flegon, owner of bar-brasserie Le Siècle in Mazan, described Delville as a “really nice guy, a family man, a Monsieur-tout-le-monde.”
Delville has been sentenced to eight years imprisonment for aggravated rape.
Other convicted men
Florian Rocca, a 32-year-old delivery driver, has been found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to seven years.
Cyprien Culieras, a former lorry driver aged 43, has been sentenced to six years for aggravated rape.
Dominique Davies, a 45-year-old ex-soldier who visited the Pelicot home six times between 2015 and 2020, has been sentenced to 13 years for aggravated rape.
Boris Moulin, 37, has been sentenced to eight years for aggravated rape.
Jerome Vilela, a volunteer in the fire service, has been found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to 13 years.
Didier Sambuchi, a 67-year-old retired ex-trucker, has been sentenced to five years for aggravated rape.
Philippe Leleu, 62, has been sentenced to sentenced to five years of which two are suspended. He has been convicted of aggravated rape.
Jean-Luc LA, a 46-year-old mirror maker, was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to 10 years.
Jean Tirano, a former roofer, has been sentenced to eight years for aggravated rape.
A 39-year-old storekeeper, Ludovick Blemeur has been sentenced to seven years for aggravated rape.
Patrick Aron, 60, was sentenced to eight years for aggravated rape. However, he will walk free due to medical issues and the need for a special prison.
Cedric Grassot, a 50-year-old computer technician, has been convicted of aggravated rape and sentenced to 12 years.
Grégory Serviol, 31, has been sentenced to eight years for aggravated rape.
Cendric Venzin, a 44-year-old restaurant manager, has been sentenced to nine years for aggravated rape.
Paul-Koikoi Grovogui, 31, has been sentenced to eight years for aggravated rape.
Omar Douiri, a 36-year-old cleaner, has been sentenced to eight years for aggravated rape.
Redouane Azougagh, 40, has been convicted of aggravated rape and sentenced to nine years in prison.
Thierry Postat, 61, has been found guilty of aggravated mass rape and drugging, along with possession of child pornography. He has been sentenced to 12 years, and banned from working with children for life.
Mahdi Daoudi, a 36-year-old transport worker, was found guilty of mass rape and drugging. He has received a sentence of eight years in prison.
Abdelali Dallal, 47, was sentenced to eight years for aggravated rape. However, he will walk free due to medical issues and the requirement for special prison.
Saifeddine Ghabi, a 36-year-old lorry driver, was acquitted of rape and attempted rape. He was found guilty of sexual assault and sentenced to three years.
Andy Rodriguez was found guilty of attempted rape and aggravating factors. He has been sentenced to six years.
Vincent Coullet was sentenced to 10 years for aggravated rape.
Adrien Longeron was found guilty of aggravated rape and child abuse imagery. He has been sentenced to six years.
Hughes Malago was sentenced to five years for attempted rape and two aggravating factors.
Ahmed Tbarik was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to eight years.
Husamettin Dogan was sentenced to nine years for aggravated rape.
Fabien Sotton was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to 11 years.
Nizar Hamida was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to 10 years.
Jacques Cubeau was convicted of aggravated rape and sentenced to five years.
Patrice Nicolle was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to eight years.
Thierry Parisis was convicted of aggravated rape and sentenced to eight years.
Christian Lescole was found guilty of aggravated rape but acquitted of having child abuse imagery. He has been sentenced to nine years.
Hassan Ouamou was convicted of aggravated rape and sentenced to 12 years. The 30-year-old is currently on the run in Morocco and has told police he has no intention of returning to France.
With inputs from agencies
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