Here’s what you need to know about the mass rape case

Judges in the French city of Avignon have sentenced Dominique Pelicot to 20 years in prison for a mass rape case that turned a 72-year-old woman into a feminist hero.

The court found 47 men guilty of rape, two guilty of attempted rape, and two guilty of sexual harassment.

For nearly a decade, Gisèle Pelicot was drugged by her ex-husband Dominique, who admitted to raping her and inviting dozens of men he had recruited online to sleep with her in her bed at home while she was unconscious.

It was her decision to withdraw her anonymity and make the case public – in her words, causing the “shameful parties” to change from the victim to the rapist.

Although Dominique Pelicot admitted to the charges against him, most of the men on trial deny that what they did was rape.

Dominique was also found guilty of trying to rape the wife of one of the suspects, Jean-Pierre Marechal. Dominique was also found guilty of taking indecent photographs of his daughter, Caroline, and daughters-in-law, Aurore and Celine.

Marechal was found guilty of attempted rape and raping his wife, Cillia, and drugging her.

Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of four to 20 years, the maximum sentence for aggravated rape.

One of the defendants, who pleaded guilty, called earlier the trial was rushed and “lost”.

Campaigners say the case has proven the need to acknowledge that it is built into France’s rape laws, as in other European countries.

From 2011 to 2020, Dominique Pelicot unknowingly drugged his wife with painkillers and sleeping pills, crushed them into powder and added them to her food and drink.

Gisèle Pelicot suffered memory loss and drug addiction and has spoken about the 10 years of her lost life.

He was finally caught because a security guard reported to the police about taking pictures under women’s skirts in a supermarket.

“I thought we were a close couple,” he once told the court. Instead, her husband was logging on to the infamous but now banned website called Coco.fr to invite local men to sleep with her while she was unconscious.

“I was sacrificed on the altar of the wicked,” said Gisèle Pelicot at the beginning of the trial.

Since early September, Judge Roger Arata and his four colleagues heard that 50 men, now aged between 27 and 74, visited the Pelicot home in Mazan village.

Dominique Pelicot pleaded guilty to all the charges against him – drugging and raping his wife and hiring a number of men to rape her. Prosecutors want the judges to sentence her to 20 years in prison for rape.

“I am a rapist,” he told the jury. “I accept all the facts [of the case] all of them.” He asked for forgiveness from his ex-wife and three children, but his actions have torn the Pelicot family apart.

The other defendants come from all walks of life and most of them are from within a 50km (30-mile) radius of the village of Pelicot in Mazan. The fact that they are firefighters, security guards and truck drivers earned them the nickname Monsieur-Tout-Le-Monde (Mr Everyman). Most of them have children too.

51 out of 51 accused of brutal rape and attempted rape.

Romain V, 63, faces up to 18 years in prison if convicted. He is accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot six times but he knows that he has HIV. His lawyer says that he would not have been able to transmit the virus as he had been receiving treatment for years.

Another 10 men could be sentenced to 15-17 years, while prosecutors are seeking 10-14 years in prison for the other 38.

Before these decisions, one of the few men who admitted to being raped told the BBC through his daughter that many people made a decision at the same time: “There was not enough time. For me it was hard work.”

The average prison sentence for rape in France is 11.1 years, according to the French justice ministry.

One man is accused of sexual harassment instead of rape. Prosecutors said Joseph C, a 69-year-old retired sports coach and grandfather, 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 apologized to Gisèle Pelicot.

“I’m ashamed of myself, I’m disgusted,” said Jean-Pierre M this week. His lawyer hoped that the judges would consider his case.

Not only was this case brought before the public, the evidence against all the suspects was recorded on video by Dominique Pelicot at that time and played in court.

Gisèle Pelicot, who is divorced from her husband, said the men “treated me like rabbit dolls”. “Don’t talk to me about sex scenes. These are rape scenes,” he said.

Therefore, none of these suspects have been able to refute the allegations that they were in Gisèle Pelicot’s room when she was unconscious.

Their defense depends on the definition of rape, because it currently involves any form of sexual intercourse “by violence, force, threat, or surprise”. That means that the prosecutors must prove that they have the intention to rape.

Public prosecutor Laure Chabaud told the court that no one can say again that “since he did not say anything, he gave his consent – that is years ago”.

Thousands of people have joined demonstrations in support of Gisèle Pelicot in France. And the women stood outside the courtroom every day chanting one of the phrases his lawyers said in court: “Shame changes sides.”

Gisèle Pelicot was present almost every day of the trial, appearing in court wearing her glasses just before nine o’clock.

His decision to withdraw his anonymity is unusual, but he has always been strong. “I want all women who have been raped to say: Madam Pelicot did it, I can do it too.”

But he has been clear that behind his facade of strength lies a “desolate field” and despite widespread praise for his achievements, he is a reluctant hero.

“He keeps saying, ‘I’m normal,’ he doesn’t want to be considered an icon,” his lawyer Stéphane Babonneau told the BBC’s Emma Barnett.

“Usually women have powers they can’t even imagine and they have to trust themselves. That’s her message.”

Lawyers for the 51 defendants highlighted the normal lives they led, although the court-appointed psychiatrist, Laurent Layet, said they were not normal or “monsters”.

In the first weeks of the trial, the mayor of the village of Mazan told the BBC that the case could have been more serious as no one had died.

But those comments caused an uproar across France and the mayor quickly apologized. He stated that he is withdrawing from public life.

The fact that the trial was held in public meant that all sessions were reported at length and in detail.

Elsa Labouret of the activist group Dare to be Feminist told the BBC: “[Gisèle Pelicot] he decided to make this bigger than himself. It does this in the way we, as a society, deal with sexual violence.”