Pelicot rape trial: all 50 men on trial alongside Dominique Pelicot found guilty over rapes and sexual assaults of Gisèle Pelicot – live updates
All 51 men on trial found guilty
The panel of five judges has found all of the 51 men on trial guilty, Reuters reports.
Fifty other men were accused alongside Dominique Pelicot, most of whom denied the charges. The French court found 46 of them guilty of rape, two guilty of attempted rape and two guilty of sexual assault.
One man is on the run and being tried in his absence.
The presiding judge told the court that sentencing would be announced after all the verdicts had been delivered.
Key events
The Front féministe international, an umbrella group of 85 feminist collectives that span eight countries, have described Dominique Pelicot’s verdict as “historic.”
In a country where only 10% of victims of sexual violence lodge a complaint and where 94% of these complaints are dismissed, in a country where rapists enjoy virtual impunity, this verdict is historic.”
The scale of the accusations against Dominique Pelicot made it historic, as did the “dignity and courage” of Gisèle Pélicot, it noted in a statement.
“Shame has changed sides. Thank you, Gisèle Pélicot!” it added.
The organisation also noted that another high-profile trial involving allegations of drugging is set to get underway in France.
In November of last year, a centre-right senator, Joël Guerriau, 66, was arrested over allegations that he drugged a member of parliament with the intent to rape or sexually assault her.
The French member of parliament who was allegedly drugged, Sandrine Josso, has described “trembling and sweating” and fearing she was having a heart attack after drinking champagne spiked with ecstasy.
Rémi-Pierre Drai, the lawyer for Guerriau, said that the senator denied any wrongdoing. “Joël Guerriau is not a predator,” Drai said in a statement to the New York Times last year. “He’s an honest, respected and respectable man who will restore his honour and that of his family, however long it takes.”
Pelicot children ‘disappointed by low sentences’ in the trial
Pelicot children are “disappointed by low sentences” in the French mass rape trial, news agency Agence France-Presse is reporting.
Clémence Guetté, the vice-president of France’s national assembly and a member of the far-left Unbowed France (LFI) party has described the trial in Mazan as “historic”.
Writing on social media, she added: “The surge of united feminist feeling that has risen throughout France is a springboard from which we can continue our battle for equality and justice. Let’s continue the fight, for Gisèle and all the others.”
Fifty other men were on trial alongside Dominique Pelicot, all of whom were found guilty.
Women’s rights campaigners have expressed anger, however, that the sentences handed to most of them were lower than those recommended by the state prosecutor.
My colleague Angelique Chrisafis, who is in the courtroom in Avignon, had this look at some of their sentences:
Charly Arbo, 30, a former vineyard worker who raped Gisèle Pelicot on six occasions, including on her 66th birthday when he was aged 24, was sentenced to 13 years in jail. Video evidence had shown he also proposed drugging and raping his own mother with Dominique Pelicot but he said he did not go through with it.
Romain Vandevelde, 63, a former forklift truck driver who raped Gisèle Pelicot on six occasions over six months between 2019 and 2020, was sentenced to 15 years. He had known he was HIV positive at the time of the alleged rapes and had not worn a condom. His lawyer said that because he had been on HIV treatment since his diagnosis in 2004 he had an undetectable viral load and could not transmit the virus.
Cédric Grassot, a software technician who used to run a record shop in Avignon, was sentenced to 12 years for raping Gisèle Pelicot at her home in 2017. During the trial, he had turned to Gisèle Pelicot in court, and said: “I was your rapist. I was your torturer.”
Jean-Pierre M., 63, former lorry driver for an agricultural cooperative in southern France, was sentenced to 12 years for using the same technique to drug and rape his own wife, and organising for Pelicot to rape her with him.
The supporters of Gisèle and women’s rights campaigners gathered outside the courtroom in Avignon have begun chanting “Shame on justice”.
Their anger is seemingly directed at the fact that some of the sentences handed down by the panel of judges were lower than those demanded by the state prosecutor.
Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer says he is considering whether to appeal the sentence
Béatrice Zavarro, the lawyer for Dominique Pelicot, has spoken to reporters, stressing that her client has 10 days to appeal against the sentence and is considering doing so.
No decision has been taken yet on whether to appeal, Zavarro added.
Manon Aubry, a member of the European Parliament and leading figure from the far-left Unbowed France (LFI) party, has said the trial in Mazan will “forever embody the fight against rape culture.”
Writing on social media, she added:
A trial for posterity, one that should make us think about the attackers, the treatment of victims, and the notion of consent, in a country where the overwhelming majority of victims never obtain justice. So that shame can definitely change sides! Thank you Gisèle.”
The president of the French national assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, has posted on social media following the verdicts:
“Thank you for your courage, Gisèle Pelicot,” she wrote. “Through you, the voices of so many victims are being heard today, shame is changing sides, the taboo has been broken. The world is no longer the same, thanks to you.”
A few photos from the courtroom in Avignon, snapped ahead of the judges’ announcement that all 51 defendants have been found guilty:
The panel of judges has declared all of the 51 defendants in France’s mass rape trial to be guilty, after a three month trial that sent shockwaves around the world.
At the centre of the case was Dominique Pelicot who admitted to drugging his then-wife, Gisèle Pelicot, for almost a decade, offering up her unconscious body for sex to dozens of strangers he had met online and filming the abuse.
The judges found him guilty on charges that included aggravated rape, sentencing him to the maximum 20 years in prison.
As news of his sentence spread, a cheer rang out outside the courtroom where supporters of Gisèle and women’s rights campaigners have gathered.
The French court also found 46 of the other defendants guilty of rape, two guilty of attempted rape and two guilty of sexual assault.
All 51 men on trial found guilty
The panel of five judges has found all of the 51 men on trial guilty, Reuters reports.
Fifty other men were accused alongside Dominique Pelicot, most of whom denied the charges. The French court found 46 of them guilty of rape, two guilty of attempted rape and two guilty of sexual assault.
One man is on the run and being tried in his absence.
The presiding judge told the court that sentencing would be announced after all the verdicts had been delivered.
Those on trial included one man who did not rape Gisèle Pelicot but repeatedly abused his own wife with the help of Dominique Pelicot.
BFMTV is reporting that the panel of five judges has also found this man guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced him to 12 years in prison.
20 of the men on trial so far found guilty
Along with Dominique Pelicot, the panel of judges also announced convictions for a first batch of 20 of 50 of the co-defendants in the case, Reuters reports.
The 20 men, all of whom were accused of being recruited by Pelicot to rape his then-wife, after she had been drugged over the course of about a decade, were found guilty of rape by a court in Avignon on Thursday.
The presiding judge told the court that sentencing would be announced after all the verdicts had been delivered.
Dominique Pelicot sentenced to 2o years in prison
The panel of five judges have sentenced Dominique Pelicot to 20 years in prison.
Prosecutors asked that he get the maximum penalty after he admitted that, for nearly a decade, he had drugged his wife of 50 years so that he and strangers he recruited online could abuse her while he filmed the assaults.
Fifty men besides Dominique Pelicot are on trial, including one who did not rape Gisele Pelicot but repeatedly abused his own wife with Dominique Pelicot’s help.
More than 20 other suspects remain at large as investigators had not managed to identify them before the start of the mass trial.
The prosecution has requested 10 to 18 years in prison against the 49 defendants also charged with aggravated rape. One of these accused is on the run and being tried in absentia.
One more accused – facing the lesser charge of groping – is facing up to four years in prison.
Reuters reports that the court has found at least 20 defendants guilty of rape.
The German daily newspaper, Die Tageszeitung, has paid tribute to Gisèle Pelicot on its cover today, accompanying a picture of her with the word “Merci”.
The trial saw some 165 media outlets – including 76 foreign ones – reportedly seek accreditation.
French TV cameras outside the courtroom in Avignon have captured the cries of joy that rang out as those gathered there – many of them supporters of Gisèle Pelicot and feminist campaigners – learned that Dominique Pelicot has been found guilty of aggravated rape of Gisèle Pelicot.
Dominique Pelicot convicted of aggravated rape
The panel of five judges have convicted Dominique Pelicot of aggravated rape of Gisèle Pelicot.
He was also convicted of making and distributing pictures and images of Gisèle Pelicot.
Dominique Pelicot has also been found guilty of making and distributing sexual images of his adult daughter Caroline and the wives of his sons. The sentence is to follow after.
