Dominique Pelicot, sentenced to 20 years in jail by a French court for repeatedly drugging and raping his then wife Gisèle for almost a decade and inviting dozens of strangers to rape her, will not appeal, his lawyer said on Monday, although a new trial will take place as 17 co-defendants have appealed.
Gisèle Pelicot (72) became a symbol of female courage and resilience during the three-month trial of her now ex-husband and his 50 co-defendants. All were found guilty by the court on December 19th.
“He decided not to appeal, because he says it would be a new ordeal and new confrontations for his wife, who he always said in the debates was not his adversary,” Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer Beatrice Zavarro said on FranceInfo Radio.
Pelicot, who was married to Gisèle for 50 years, had pleaded guilty, and the panel of five judges gave him the maximum sentence, as requested by prosecutors. He will not be eligible to request early release until he has served at least two-thirds of his sentence.
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The court found 46 of the other defendants guilty of rape, two guilty of attempted rape and two guilty of sexual assault, imposing sentences of between three and 15 years in jail, less than the four-to-18 years demanded by the prosecution.
Seventeen have so far said they will appeal, and the others have until midnight on Monday to decide.
They come from all walks of life: lorry drivers, soldiers, firefighters, security guards, farm workers, a supermarket worker, a journalist and the unemployed.
Many of the accused had denied the charges, saying they thought they were participating in a consensual sex game orchestrated by the couple and arguing that it was not rape if the husband approved.
Dominique Pelicot (72) denied misleading the men, whom he had met online, saying they knew exactly what they were doing.
The trial has triggered protest rallies around France in support of Ms Pelicot, and spurred soul searching, including a debate on whether to update France’s rape law, which at present makes no mention that sex should involve consent.
Ms Pelicot said she was not afraid of a new trial, her lawyer said earlier this month.
“She is not afraid. If it should happen, she has already told us she would cope – if she’s in good health, of course, because she is 72 today,” her lawyer said.
Dominique Pelicot laced his then-wife’s food and drink with tranquillisers to render her unconscious. He then invited strangers he met online to take part in sordid rape and abuse fantasies that he acted out with them and filmed in the couple’s retirement home in the small Provence town of Mazan, and elsewhere.
Ms Pelicot’s courage during the bruising trial and her appalling ordeal, inflicted on the retired power company worker during what she had thought was a loving marriage, galvanised campaigners and triggered calls for tougher measures to stamp out rape culture.
She waived her right to anonymity as a survivor of sexual abuse and successfully pushed for the hearings and shocking evidence – including her ex-husband’s home-made videos of the rapes – to be heard in open court, insisting that shame should fall on her abusers, not herself. – Reuters/AP
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