After three and a half months of hearings, the 51 men tried in the largest trial for rape by chemical submission in French judicial history learned this Thursday the verdict of the five judges of the Avignon criminal court for the rapes of Gisèle Pelicot over a decade . They have all been found guilty.
Dominique Pelicot, 73, has been found guilty of aggravated individual and group rape by administering chemicals to his ex-wife, Gisèle Pelicot. For this they apply the maximum possible sentence in France, 20 years in prison.
In its final arguments, delivered last week, the prosecution had requested the maximum sentence. He considered him the “organizer” of the rapes committed on his wife, whom he had drugged for at least a decade with the aim of attacking her himself and handing her over to dozens of men he had contacted on the Internet.
For the other defendants, the required sentences ranged between 10 and 18 years in prison for the 49 accused of aggravated rape (one of them is missing) and a sentence of four years for the last one, who was accused of “touching.” and not rape. In this case (Saifedine G.) the court has not found him guilty of rape, but of sexual assault.
Among the 49 accused of rape, Jean-Pierre M. was tried for raping his own wife – also by chemical submission – in the company of Dominique Pelicot.
Throughout the past week, all defense lawyers had criticized the prosecutors’ requests, which they considered “excessive”, “wild” or “delusional.” And they pointed out that they were mostly higher than the average for sentences for rape in France, which in 2022 was 11 years, according to data from the Ministry of Justice.
The lawyers of around thirty of the accused had gone further and asked for a complete acquittal, arguing that their clients had been “manipulated” by Dominique Pelicot and “had no intention” of raping his then wife. “I recognize the facts, but not the intention,” was the formula repeated by many of the accused.
Intention and consciousness
During the final arguments, the prosecutors stressed that this alleged lack of intentionality did not exempt them from responsibility. Not even for those – the vast majority – who claimed not to have been informed in advance that they would find Gisèle Pelicot under the effects of a sedative.
The sentence puts an end to the trial that opened on September 2, which included a long period of almost two months of interrogations, graphic descriptions and viewing of the videos of the rapes recorded by Dominique Pelicot. For the defense, these videos, which have formed the basis of the accusation, were not sufficient evidence, since they were open to interpretation.
The manipulation ends at the bedroom door
Prosecutor’s Office
If the prosecution had admitted that the few conversations available between them and Dominique Pelicot raised doubts about what the defendants knew before going to the family home, the videos cleared up any unknowns about what they found in the Pelicots’ bedroom. “Premeditation is attributable to Dominique Pelicot; For others, you have to place yourself at the moment of the act,” summarized one of the prosecutors. “Manipulation ends at the bedroom door.”
In those two months, practically all of the accused apologized to the victim – present at almost all the hearings – despite the fact that many continued to deny the facts. “It’s rape, but I didn’t rape her,” several of the accused said after seeing themselves in the videos. “It’s my body but not my brain,” one of them even stated.
“I am a rapist”
On the other hand, the defense also emphasized placing Dominique Pelicot at the center of the debates. Main accused and at the same time main accuser, his role and that of his lawyer has been to dismantle the defense allegations. “I am a rapist, like everyone else in this room,” Dominique Pelicot proclaimed during his first interrogation, on September 17.
Several of the defense lawyers have criticized the fact that the prosecution had given too much credence to Dominique Pelicot’s claims, pointing to contradictory statements both during the police investigation and during the trial. He initially acknowledged “about fifteen” men who had come to abuse his wife, before implicating many more, including two who the police investigation showed had never been to Mazan.
Since September 2, I have not regretted my choice. On the contrary. This is how the trial should unfold
Gisèle Pelicot
Dominique Pelicot is, in addition to the organizer and co-author of the attacks in a meeting with the other accused, the author, alone, of several hundred rapes of his wife. He was also caught upskirt filming women in public places, photographed his daughter and daughters-in-law naked and shared the images on the Internet. His daughter stated on the stand that she believed she had also been a victim of chemical submission assaults committed by her father, something he denies.
Today Dominique Pelicot is being investigated for the rape and subsequent murder of a real estate agent in 1991, using ether and a rope, and for the attempted rape of another woman in 1999. Pelicot has denied the first. He had initially denied the second as well, before the police showed him the results of the DNA test.
International attention
The case has put rape culturethe question of consent and chemical submission at the center of debates, in France and around the world. The vast majority of the hearings have been public, mainly thanks to the victim who, through his lawyers, broke down the resistance of the defense and convinced the president of the court, Roger Arata, who was also reluctant.
I have grandchildren and I don’t want them to be ashamed of using that last name. I want them to be proud of their grandmother. From today onwards Mrs. Pelicot will be remembered and Mr. Pelicot less and less
Gisèle Pelicot
Of the dozens of men her husband invited to her bedroom to rape her, Gisèle Pelicot did not know their faces, except that of a former neighbor, nor did she remember the acts they inflicted on her. She had discovered some during the investigation, when watching the videos found by the police on her ex-husband’s computer. “Since September 2, I have not regretted my choice. On the contrary,” he declared on October 23, regarding the public hearings. “This is how the trial should unfold,” he repeated last Tuesday.
In France, several media outlets decided to call it “the Mazan rape case” from the beginning, after the town where the events took place. For the rest, and for the majority of the international press, it is the Pelicot case, a surname shared by the victim and the main accused.
When a lawyer asked her the reasons why she had not changed it, Gisèle Pelicot replied: “I have grandchildren and I don’t want them to be ashamed of using that surname. I want them to be proud of their grandmother. From today onwards, Mrs. Pelicot will be remembered and Mr. Pelicot less and less.”
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