Dominique Pelicot has been given a 20-year prison sentence after being found guilty of the aggravated rape of his ex-wife Gisèle Pelicot by a court in the French city of Avignon on Thursday, in a trial that horrified France and the world.
Dominique Pelicot, who admitted his crimes in court, repeatedly drugged, abused and offered up dozens of strangers to rape her while she was heavily sedated over a period of nearly a decade.
The ex-husband’s lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, only said after the ruling that her client, who is now 72 years old, has taken note of the outcome and that it has not yet been decided whether he will appeal.
The judges also convicted the fifty other co-defendants, with the verdicts read out one by one in the packed courtroom. Nearly all were found guilty of rape charges.
The judges imposed prison sentences of three to fifteen years on the fifty co-suspects. A handful of convicts will be released because they have already served their time in custody.
These sentences fell short of what the prosecutor had requested. They had demanded prison sentences of four to 18 years for the fifty men, who would have been between 21 and 68 years old at the time of their offences.
Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus, said: “Everyone contributed in their own way and at their own level to this monstrosity, to this martyrdom of this woman.”
During the mammoth trial, the court heard how Dominique Pelicot contacted the men via an online platform and recorded the abuse in hundreds of videos and photos.
Many of the co-defendants had argued that they believed Pelicot had consented to the sexual encounters and was only pretending to be asleep.
Investigators suspect there are a dozen other perpetrators who have not yet been identified.
Gisèle Pelicot, now 72, believes she has suffered about 200 rapes.
The trial, which has been ongoing since September, has shocked France and reignited debate over criminal law on sexual violence.
