AVIGNON, France — A mammoth rape trial in France moved into a brand new part Monday as prosecutors started to put out the verdicts and punishments they need for dozens of males accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot whereas she was drugged and rendered unconscious by her husband.
After hearings stretching over almost three months, the trial of 51 defendants within the southern metropolis of Avignon is starting to wrap up. Pelicot’s braveness throughout the harrowing proceedings has helped remodel her into an icon, even past France, for campaigners preventing towards sexual violence.
The general public prosecutors began Monday by specializing in Dominique Pelicot, the person that 71-year-old Gisèle Pelicot was married to for almost 50 years and who she believed was a loving, caring husband.
However he has admitted that for years he blended sedatives into her foods and drinks so he may rape her and likewise invite dozens of strangers that he recruited on-line to additionally rape her.
Prosecutor Laure Chabaud requested the panel of judges for the utmost potential penalty for aggravated rape — 20 years — towards the sufferer’s now ex-husband. Dominique Pelicot, who turns 72 this week, stared down on the ground, one hand on the deal with of his cane, because the prosecutor spoke.
“Twenty years between the 4 partitions of a jail,” she stated. “It’s each rather a lot and never sufficient.”
The courtroom is anticipated to ship its verdicts earlier than Dec. 20.
Gisèle Pelicot, who waived her proper to anonymity, pushed for graphic photographs that her husband filmed of the rapes to be introduced within the courtroom, exhibiting that she was unconscious and inert, audibly loud night breathing.
“This girl was you, Madame Gisèle Pelicot, an unusual girl,” stated prosecutor Jean-François Mayet, turning to her, as he praised her braveness and her need to make disgrace change sides, so it falls on rapists and never their victims.
He famous that Monday additionally marked the worldwide day for the elimination of violence towards ladies and stated that France faces “a protracted path for our society to vary its view of rape tradition.”
Gisèle Pelicot sat quietly, typically staring up the ceiling, because the prosecutors detailed how Dominique Pelicot amassed and thoroughly catalogued a library of 20,000 photographs and movies of the abuse that stretched over almost a decade. The proof that he saved on exhausting drives, reminiscence sticks and telephones led investigators to dozens of the lads he recruited, though about 20 others have not been recognized.
All however one of many defendants are on trial for aggravated rape. In earlier testimony, she stated they handled her “like a rag doll, like a rubbish bag.”
“When did they ask the query of Madame Pelicot’s consent? Not earlier than. Not throughout,” Mayet stated.
Members of the general public who hoped to witness the proceedings and lined up exterior booed some defendants as they entered the courthouse, yelling: “We acknowledge you” and “Disgrace.” Banners that campaigners hung reverse the constructing learn: “20 years for every of them” and “a rape is a rape.”
Gisèle Pelicot was greeted exterior with cheers and applause.
“We really feel it does her good. And it’s doing us good, too, as a result of she’s actually making a distinction in relation to feminism,” stated Chantal Crémont, a supporter who traveled from western France.
“It’s revolutionary in a manner. When she says that disgrace modifications sides, it’s actually that. She’s standing because the sufferer, and she or he’s turning the tables,” she stated. “It’s crucial.”
Dominique Pelicot has beforehand tearfully acknowledged in courtroom that he’s responsible of the allegations towards him. He stated all of his co-defendants understood precisely what they had been doing when he invited them to his dwelling in Provence between 2011 and 2020 to have intercourse together with his unconscious and unwitting spouse, who divorced him after studying what he had finished to her. He had no problem discovering dozens of males to participate.
In earlier weeks of testimony, many defendants informed the courtroom that they couldn’t have imagined that Dominique Pelicot was drugging his spouse, and that they had been informed she was a keen participant appearing out a kinky fantasy.
Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, stated the prosecutors’ request for the utmost potential penalty towards him was justified “in view of the gravity of the details and the seriousness of the acts of which he’s accused.”
“There’s no shock in asking for 20 years, and that’s what I personally anticipated. But it surely’s nonetheless a surprising and heavy sentence for a person who’ll be 72 in a couple of days,” she stated.
