51 people to be sentenced in Pellicot gang rape trial that shocked France

Judges in the French city of Avignon will deliver verdicts on Thursday to 51 men in the gang rape trial that has turned the 72-year-old woman into a feminist icon.

For nearly a decade, Giselle Pellicot was drugged by her ex-husband Dominic, who then invited dozens of men he recruited online to have sex with her in her bed at home while she was unconscious and unaware .

It was her decision to waive his anonymity and put the case out in the open – in her words, creating a “shaming party” from victim to rapist.

Although he admits to the charges against him, most of the other men on trial deny that what they did was rape.

Prosecutors are seeking a prison sentence ranging from four years to 20 years, the maximum sentence for an aggravated rape charge.

One of the defendants, who has pleaded guilty to the charges, has said the trial was rushed and “botched”.

Campaigners say the case proves the need for consent in France’s rape laws, as in other European countries.

From 2011 to 2020, Dominic Pellicott gave his wife sedatives and sleeping pills without her knowledge, crushed them into powder and mixed them into her food and drinks.

Giselle Pellicote suffered memory loss and blackouts due to the drugs and has spoken of losing 10 years of her life.

He was eventually caught after a security guard reported him to the police for taking pictures up the skirts of women in a supermarket.

She once told the court, “I thought we were a close couple.” Instead, her husband was inviting local men to have sex with her on an infamous but now banned website called Coco.fr while she was unconscious.

“I was sacrificed on the altar of evil,” Gisele Pellicot said at the beginning of the trial.

Since the beginning of September, Judge Roger Arata and four of his colleagues have heard how 50 people, now aged between 27 and 74, came to the Pellicotes’ home in the village of Mazan.

Dominic Pellicott has admitted all the charges against him – drugging and raping his wife and recruiting dozens of men to rape her. Prosecutors want the judge to sentence him to the maximum 20 years in prison for aggravated rape.

He told the judges, “I am a rapist.” “I accept all the facts (of the case) in their entirety.” He has begged for forgiveness from his ex-wife and three children, but his actions have torn the Pellicote family apart.

Other defendants come from all walks of life and most of them are from within a 50 km (30-mile) radius of the Pelicotes village of Mazan. The fact that they are firefighters, security guards and lorry drivers has earned them the name Monsieur-tout-le-Monde (Mr. Everyman). Most of them also have children.

50 of the 51 are accused of aggravated rape and attempted rape.

Romain V, 63, faces up to 18 years in prison if convicted. He is accused of raping Gisele Pellicot on six separate occasions, even though he knew she was HIV positive. His lawyer says that he could not have had the infection because he had been undergoing treatment for years.

Another 10 people could face 15-17 years in prison, and prosecutors are seeking 10-14 years in prison for another 38 people.

Before the verdict, one of the few people to confess to the rape told the BBC through his daughter that many people had quickly made up their minds: “There wasn’t enough time. It was a bad thing for me to do.”

According to the French Ministry of Justice, the average prison term for rape in France is 11.1 years.

A man is accused of aggravated sexual assault rather than rape. Prosecutors say retired sports coach and grandfather Joseph See, 69, should face the lightest possible sentence of four years in prison.

Some of them have apologized for their behavior, but many have not.

Cyril B said he felt sorry for Gisele Pellicot.

“I’m ashamed of myself, I’m disgusted,” Jean-Pierre M. said this week. His lawyer hoped the judge would take account of his remorse.

Not only has this case been brought before the public, but the evidence against all the accused was recorded on video by Dominic Pellicote at that time and then presented in the court.

Gisele Pellicot, who has divorced her husband, said the men “treated me like a rag doll”. He said, “Don’t talk to me about sex scenes. These are rape scenes.”

Therefore none of the accused have been able to challenge the allegation that they were in Gisele Pellicot’s room when she was unconscious.

His defense has relied on the definition of rape, as it currently includes any form of sexual penetration “by violence, force, threat or surprise”. This means that prosecutors must prove intent to rape.

Public prosecutor Laure Chabaud told the court that no one could now say that “because she did not say anything, she gave her consent – ​​that is a thing of the past”.

Thousands of people have joined protests in France in support of Gisele Pellicot. And the women stand outside the court every day uttering one of the phrases their lawyers said in court: “Shame they’re switching sides.”

Giselle Pellicotte has attended almost every day of the trial, and appeared in court just before nine o’clock in her sunglasses.

Her decision to give up her anonymity is highly unusual, but she has remained steadfast throughout. “I want all women who have been raped to say: Madame Pélicotte did it, I can do it too.”

But she has been clear that behind her facade of strength “lies a field of ruins” and that despite widespread praise for what she has done, she is a reluctant hero.

“She keeps repeating, ‘I’m normal,’ she doesn’t want to be considered an icon,” her lawyer Stephane Baboneau told BBC correspondent Emma Barnett.

“Women generally have a strength that they can’t even imagine and they have to believe in themselves. That’s her message.”

Lawyers for the 51 defendants have highlighted their normal lives, although court-appointed psychiatrist Laurent Leyte testified that they were neither normal nor “monsters”.

In the early weeks of the trial, the then mayor of the village of Mazan told the BBC that the case could have been much more serious because no one had died.

But those comments sparked outrage across France and the mayor quickly apologised. He has since said that he is withdrawing from public life.

The fact that the trial has been conducted publicly means that each session has been reported in detail and in detail.

Elsa Laborette of the activist group Dare to Be Feminist told the BBC: “(Gisele Pellicot) decided to make it bigger than herself. To make it about how we as a society deal with sexual violence.”