Brave Gisèle Pelicot was drugged unconscious and raped by her husband and 50 men he had invited to have sex with her in their small Provencal village in southeastern France.
The 72-year-old retiree should have been the ultimate victim.
Instead, because she waived her anonymity and showed her face to the world during her husband of 50 years’ harrowing trial, Pelicot has become a feminist folk heroine and symbol of hope in France.
“Bravo Madame!” blared the headline of Le Parisien after a French court on Thursday sentenced Dominique Pelicot to a maximum 20 years of imprisonment for drugging and raping Gisèle and allowing other men to rape her while she was knocked out, abuse that lasted nearly a decade.
The sentence against Pelicot was handed down after he was found guilty of all charges against him. Also aged 72, it will likely mean he spends the rest of his life in prison.
The verdict was read by the lead judge of the court in Avignon, Roger Arata.
Arata read out each verdict one after the other against Pelicot and the 50 men, declaring, “You are therefore declared guilty of aggravated rape on the person of Mme. Gisèle Pelicot,” to each.
“Merci Gisèle!” a mob of women shouted as Pelicot exited the court Thursday, in a cry that’s become synonymous with Pelicot’s ordeal and courage. It is hoped the case will change the attitude toward sex assaults in France, a country where the #MeToo movement never really took hold.
“I want you to know that we share the same fight,” Pelicot said in her first words after the verdict, expressing “my profound gratitude towards the people who supported me.”
Pelicot said she insisted the nearly four month-long trial and evidence be made public and she attended the proceedings — not only for herself but for her family and other women who have been victims of sexual abuse.
Her daughter, Caroline Darian, 45, one of three children she shares with Dominique, attended the trial as well.
Photos of Caroline, seemingly drugged and sometimes pictured nude or in her mother’s underwear, were found on her father’s laptop. He denied drugging or assaulting her, but the evidence leaves uneasy questions hanging over the family.
The Pelicot family has been fractured since the revelations of Dominique’s violence toward his wife were uncovered.
“At this moment, I am thinking first and foremost of my three children, David, Caroline and Florian,” Gisèle said Thursday.
“I’m also thinking of my grandchildren, because they are the future, and it’s also for them that I’ve fought this battle, as well as my daughters-in-law, Aurore and Céline…
“I wanted all of society to be a witness to the debates that took place here. I never regretted making this decision. I have trust in our capacity to collectively project ourselves toward a future where all, women and men, can live in harmony, with respect and mutual understanding. Thank you.”
She also thanked those who had sent her support, saying people’s messages had moved her deeply and “gave me the strength to come back, every day, and survive through these long daily hearings.”
The fifty other men found guilty of aggravated rape or molestation were sentenced to between three to 15 years – much less than prosecutors had requested.
Feminist groups and crusaders for ending sexual violence were angered by what they felt were too-lenient sentences, even though Mrs. Pelicot said she accepted the court’s decision.
But many other women in France were left reeling.
“Each day of the trial has exacerbated the collective shock and despair at the sheer number of ‘regular guys’ who all thought that raping an unconscious woman was perfectly fine,” Allison Coe, a blogger in the south of France, told The Post.
“Then there is the nightmare of it happening in her own bedroom, orchestrated by the man she loved …and uncovered only by a fluke!
“Giselle Pelicot’s unbelievable strength in facing this sordid evil head-on and refusing to let any of it be hidden is a game-changer, and will help future victims to ‘make the shame change sides’. What a hero she is. And how despicable the men.”
Dominique Pelicot admitted that for years he knocked his then-wife of 50 years out with drugs so that he and strangers could abuse her, and even filmed the assaults.
It’s believed that between 2011 and 2020 he drugged her and invited up to 83 men to rape her as well, mainly recruited via a local website.
“Sexiness had nothing to do with it,” one supporter who lives not far from Mazan told The Post. “She was snoring through all of it. She did feel weird in the morning but he gaslighted her and she thought she had a brain tumor, or [was] getting Alzheimer’s.”
Dominique Pelicot testified he hid tranquilizers in food and drink that he gave his then-wife, which knocked her out so profoundly that he could enact out his sick scheme for hours before she would wake up.
He was caught by chance by police in September 2020 when a supermarket security guard caught him surreptitiously filming up women’s skirts.
Investigating, police found his library of homemade porn documenting years of abuse inflicted on his wife — more than 20,000 photos and videos in all, stored on computer drives and cataloged in folders marked “Abuse,” “Her rapists,” “Night alone” and other titles.
Gisèle’s stoicism and bravery throughout the bruising and stunning trial have transformed the retired power company worker into a national icon.
“How she had that courage I don’t know, it’s just It’s incredible,” Joan P. White, the American-born director of the Paris Fashion Institute, told The Post.
“She sent a great message to herself and other women, [saying] they are not the ones who should be ashamed.
“People expected her to stay hidden and not show her face but she did the opposite. What a bastard that husband was. He encouraged her to think she was crazy. He should be shot for that alone. I thought about writing her a letter.
“Every woman I know in France felt she was like their savior. One of my friends went down to cheer her on in court.”
Annette Young, an anchor at FRANCE 24 in Paris agreed.
“May this herald the beginning of a change in the way society views rape and most importantly, how we treat survivors,” she said.
“As Gisèle Pelicot says, it’s time ‘shame changes sides.’ Our eternal thanks to Gisèle and her children for not only going public but also graciously dealing with all the media attention that went with it.”
