CONTENT WARNING: This article discusses rape.
Prosecutors have demanded a maximum 20-year jail sentence for 71-year-old French man Dominique Pelicot in the rape case that has gripped the world.
Gisele Pelicot, who chose to sacrifice her anonymity in an attempt to remove the “shame” felt by victims, was subjected to almost a decade of drugging and raping at the hands of her husband — and other men that he recruited to abuse her — without her consent, or knowledge.
It was not until November 2020, when police discovered hours of evidence kept on a hard drive labelled “abuse”, that Ms Pelicot, 72, was made aware of the crimes.
After witnessing the footage herself, Ms Pelicot pushed for the photographic and video evidence to be shown to the courtroom to make it clear that she was obviously unconscious and even audibly snoring.
Mr Pelicot has admitted to the crimes in their entirety, telling the court “I am a rapist, like the others in this room.” Investigators found evidence of approximately 200 rapes, including over 90 at the hands of strangers.
From 2011 to 2020, he laced his wife’s food and drink with anti-anxiety drugs to sedate her, then recruited strangers online to rape and abuse her in their Mazan home.
Pelicot’s crimes against his wife were only discovered after he was caught filming up women’s skirts at a supermarket.
Horrifically, the court also heard that Ms Pelicot was effectively in a comatose state when the crimes occurred.
“It is obvious that Mme Pelicot was not in a normal conscious state. She was in a state of torpor closer to a coma than sleep. The reactivity of a subject plunged into a coma didn’t seem to dissuade the participants,” assistant state prosecutor Laure Chabaud said.
According to Chabaud, Ms Pelicot was so heavily sedated that “the risk was considerable she could have died.”
In addition to Pelicot, another 50 men are on trial, mostly for charges of aggravated rape.
Prosecutors have demanded 10-year sentences for 11 defendants, 11 years for two defendants, and 12 years for another 4. In the case of Jean-Pierre M, the 63-year-old who implemented Pelicot’s methods to repeatedly rape his own wife a dozen times, prosecutors demanded a 17-year prison sentence.
Speaking of the sentencing, assistant state prosecutor Chabaud said the sentence was “at the same time long but not long enough given the gravity of the facts that were committed and repeated”.
“His search for pleasure was reflected in a desire to subjugate his wife, to humiliate and even degrade through his actions and words the person he cherished most in the world,” Chabaud said.
Help is available.
- If you require immediate assistance, please call 000.
- If you’d like to speak to someone about sexual violence, please call the 1800 Respect hotline on 1800 737 732 or chat online.
- Under 25? You can reach Kids Helpline at 1800 55 1800 or chat online.
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