Dominique Pelicot, the Monster of Avignon, has attacked his fellow rape accomplices who joined him in attacking his wife, Gisele Pelicot, over the course of a decade.
Dominique, 72, mixed tranquilizers into his wife’s food and drink to render her unconscious. He then invited strangers he met online to participate in sordid fantasies of rape and abuse which he acted out with them and filmed at the couple’s retirement home in the small Provençal town of Mazan and elsewhere.
Gisele Pelicot, 72, has become a symbol of female courage and resilience during the three-month trial of her now ex-husband and his 50 co-defendants, in a case that has horrified the world. They were all found guilty by the court on December 19.
Dominique will not join 17 of his 50 fellow defendants who are appealing their sentences.
Through his lawyer, he criticized his fellow defendants for doing so, stating that it would be a “new test” for his ex-wife.
“He decided not to appeal because he says it would be a new test and new confrontations for his wife, who he always said in the debates was not his adversary,” said Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, on FranceInfo Radio.
Dominique Pelicot, who was married to Gisele for 50 years, pleaded guilty and the five-judge panel gave him the maximum sentence, as requested by the prosecution.
The court found 46 of the other defendants guilty of rape, two guilty of attempted rape and two guilty of sexual assault, and handed them sentences of between three and 15 years in prison, less than the four to 18 years required by the prosecution.
Gisele Pelicot (pictured) has become a symbol of female courage and resilience during the three-month trial of her now ex-husband and his 50 co-defendants.
Dominique (pictured, right) laced his wife Gisele’s (pictured) food and drink with tranquilizers to render her unconscious. He then invited strangers he met online to participate in sordid fantasies of rape and abuse that he acted out with them.
So far seventeen have said they will appeal, and the others have until midnight Monday to decide.
They come from all walks of life: truck drivers, soldiers, firefighters, security guards, farm workers, a supermarket worker, a journalist and the unemployed.
Many of the defendants denied the charges, saying they thought it was a consensual sexual game orchestrated by the couple and arguing that it was not rape if the husband approved.
Dominique denied cheating on the men, whom she had met online, saying they knew exactly what they were doing.
The trial has sparked protest demonstrations across France in support of Gisele and spurred soul-searching, including a debate over whether to update France’s rape law, which currently makes no mention that sex must involve consent.
One of the sex offenders was met by an angry crowd as he tried to leave the court after the sentence was handed down.
Gisele Pelicot’s daughter, Caroline Darian, arrives at the courthouse in Avignon, southern France, on Thursday, December 19, 2024.
Gisele Pelicot leaves the court surrounded by French police and journalists after the verdict of the December 19 trial
Gisele’s bravery during the painful trial and her ordeal, inflicted on the retired power company worker in what she had thought was a loving marriage, galvanized activists and sparked calls for tougher measures to eradicate the culture of the rape.
She waived her right to anonymity as a survivor of sexual abuse and successfully pushed for the hearings and shocking evidence – including home videos of her ex-husband’s rapes – to be heard in open court, insisting that the shame should fall on her abusers, not their.
Gisele Pelicot said she was not afraid of a new trial, her lawyer said earlier this month.
‘She’s not afraid. If this were to happen, she has already told us that she would face it, if she is in good health, of course, because today she is 72 years old,” her lawyer said.