Women in France and around Europe owe a profound debt of gratitude to the unconquerable spirit and resilience of Gisèle Pelicot. Her determination to go public, waiving anonymity, to expose the unimaginable violence she faced and to challenge traditional male impunity for rape has been vindicated in a court in Avignon. Her courageous stance will surely help many other women to break through the veil of shame and personal humiliation which has too often surrounded the reporting of rape.
The shocking case, which has attracted worldwide attention, should set a new benchmark for bringing to account those responsible for violence against women.
It was “a trial for posterity,” MEP Manon Aubry posted, “one that should make us think about the attackers, the treatment of victims, and the notion of consent, in a country where the overwhelming majority of victims never obtain justice.”
The court sentenced her husband, Dominique Pelicot, to 20 years, the maximum sought by prosecutors, on charges including aggravated rape over a nine-year period from 2011 in the village of Mazan, Provence. He had admitted to drugging her repeatedly , offering up her unconscious body for sex to dozens of strangers from all walks of life he had met online, and filming the abuse. The abundance of video evidence combined with his guilty plea made the result almost inevitable. The court also found 46 other participants guilty of rape, two guilty of attempted rape and two guilty of sexual assault. There were no acquittals.
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Sentences for the latter fell short of the maximum demanded by the prosecution, but varied from two to 15 years. In total, the prosecution had requested 652 years’ imprisonment for the 51 defendants, who were ultimately sentenced to 428 years behind bars. Romain Vandevelde (63), a former forklift truck driver who raped Gisèle Pelicot on six occasions over six months between 2019 and 2020, knowing he was HIV positive at the time of the alleged rapes, was sentenced to 15 years.
Although the Pelicot children and crowds of supporters outside the court have understandably criticised the sentences as “mild”, they represent a unique and important step in the history of accountability for rape, sending a powerful message to abusers .
The face of this remarkable woman, a quiet 72-year-old grandmother, now stares out from posters on the sides of buildings across France and from the placards of supporters. She is a formidable icon whose case has rallied a new generation of women. Now no longer a victim, one of her lawyers, Stéphane Babonneau, says, Gisèle Pelicot has become the physical expression of the fact that " shame has switched sides.”