Dominique Pelicot, the Monster of Avignon, has hit out at his fellow rape accomplices who joined him in attacking his wife, Gisele Pelicot, over the course of a decade.
Dominique, 72, laced his wife’s food and drink with tranquilisers 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.
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. All were found guilty by the court on December 19.
Dominique will not be joining the 17 of his fellow 50 defendants who are appealing their sentences.
Through his lawyer, he hit out at his fellow defendants for doing so, claiming it would be a ‘new ordeal’ for his ex-wife.
‘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.
Dominique Pelicot, who was married to Gisele for 50 years, pleaded guilty and the panel of five judges gave him the maximum sentence, as requested by prosecutors.
The court found 46 of the other defendants guilty of rape, two guilty of attempted rape and two guilty of sexual assault, handing down sentences of between three and 15 years in jail, less than the four-to-18 years demanded 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 tranquilisers 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
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 it was a consensual sex game orchestrated by the couple and arguing that it was not rape if the husband approved.
Dominique 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 Gisele, 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.
One of the sex attackers was met by a furious crowd when he was trying to leave the court after the verdicts were handed down
The daughter of Gisele Pelicot, Caroline Darian, arrives in the Avignon courthouse, southern France, Thursday December 19, 2024
Gisele Pelicot leaves the courthouse surrounded by French police and journalists after the verdict in the trial on December 19
Gisele courage during the bruising trial and her appalling ordeal, inflicted on the retired power company worker in 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 homemade videos of the rapes – to be heard in open court, insisting that shame should fall on her abusers, not her.
Gisele 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.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
