 "Frenchwoman Gisele Pelicot, the victim of the mass rape orchestrated by her then-husband Dominique Pelicot in the southern French town of Mazan, arrives with her lawyers Stephane Babonneau and Antoine Camus to attend the verdict in the trial for Dominique Pelicot and 50 co-accused, at the courthouse in Avignon, France. Reuters")
Gisele Pelicot, the French woman who was raped by her ex-husband and 50 other men he recruited online, on Thursday thanked her supporters for giving her strength to attend the biggest sexual assault trial in France’s history.
Pelicot’s husband, Dominique Pelicot and the 50 men who joined him to commit the heinous crime were convicted of aggravated rape by a French court. Dominique, who had already admitted to the crime, will spend 20 years in jail.
“I respect the court and the decision of its verdict,” Gisele Pelicot told reporters in her first comments after the judgement was issued, adding she “never regretted” opening the trial to the public and was now thinking of the “unrecognised victims whose stories often remain in the shadows”.
She added, “I have confidence in our capacity collectively to find a better future in which men and women alike can live harmoniously together with mutual respect.”
What’s the case?
The case has sent shockwaves through the country and around the world and has been labelled as the worst case of sexual assault in France’s history.
Gisele Pelicot, 72, has become a feminist hero at home and abroad for refusing to be ashamed, waiving her right to a closed trial and standing up to her aggressors in court.
Last month, prosecutors demanded the maximum possible sentence of 20 years for all the 51 men on charges of aggravated rape.
They received jail terms of between three and 15 years – less than what prosecutors had demanded. Two of these defendants had their jail terms suspended.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsPelicot’s children ‘disappointed’
While Pelicot has welcomed the court’s verdict, her children have expressed disappointment over it.
They believe the verdicts handed down by a French court to the guilty men in the case were too mild, a family member told AFP.
“The children are disappointed by these low sentences,” said the family member, asking not be identified, after a court in Avignon sentenced Dominique Pelicot’s co-defendants to between three and 15 years in jail, with two of the sentences suspended.
With inputs from agencies