Prosecutors demand maximum sentence for Gisele Pelicot’s ex-husband

A high-profile rape trial in France has moved into a new phase, with prosecutors setting out the verdicts and punishments they want for dozens of men accused of raping Gisele Pelicot while she was drugged and rendered unconscious by her husband.

After hearings stretching over nearly three months, the trial in the southern city of Avignon is beginning to wrap up, with prosecutors summing up the verdicts they want for the 51 accused.

They started by focusing on Dominique Pelicot, the man that 71-year-old Gisele Pelicot was married to for nearly 50 years.

He has acknowledged that for years, he mixed sedatives into her food and drink so that he could rape her and also invite dozens of strangers to sexually assault her.

Prosecutor Laure Chabaud asked for the maximum possible penalty for aggravated rape – 20 years – against Ms Pelicot’s now ex-husband.

The 72-year-old stared down at the floor, one hand on the handle of his cane, as the prosecutor spoke.

“Twenty years between the four walls of a prison,” she said.

“It’s both a lot and not enough.”

The court is expected to deliver its verdicts before December 20.

During the trial, Ms Pelicot has become a symbol of the fight against sexual violence in France.

She has insisted that the proceedings should be held in public, against the court’s suggestion of holding the trial behind closed doors.

And she has been praised for her courage and composure, as well as admired for speaking in a calm and clear voice and allowing her full name to be published – uncommon under French law for alleged victims in rape trials.

Ms Pelicot has pushed for graphic images that her husband filmed of the rapes to be presented in the courtroom, showing that she was unconscious and inert, audibly snoring.

“This woman was you, Madame Gisele Pelicot, an ordinary woman,” said prosecutor Jean-Francois Mayet, turning to her, as he praised her courage and her desire to make shame change sides, so it falls on rapists and not their victims.

Ms Pelicot sat quietly, sometimes staring up at the ceiling, as the prosecutors detailed how Dominique Pelicot amassed and carefully catalogued a library of 20,000 photos and videos of the abuse that stretched over nearly a decade.

The evidence that he stored on hard drives, memory sticks and phones led investigators to dozens of the men he recruited, although about 20 others have yet to be identified.

All but one of the defendants are on trial for aggravated rape or attempted rape.

In previous testimony, she said they treated her “like a rag doll, like a garbage bag”.

“When did they ask the question of Madame Pelicot’s consent? Not before. Not during,” Mr Mayet said.

Prosecutors described the rapes one by one that Dominique Pelicot’s co-defendants allegedly committed on his unconscious wife and with his help and rules, including that they not make loud noises and first warm their hands so as not to wake her up.

The defendants and alleged rapes are so numerous that the prosecutors were expected to take three days to summarise the evidence and detail the verdicts and sentences they want.

In the first cases that the prosecutors focused on Monday, after requesting 20 years imprisonment for Dominique Pelicot, they asked for sentences of 10 years or more for co-defendants also on trial for rape or attempted rape.

Dominique Pelicot has tearfully acknowledged in court that he is guilty of the allegations against him.

He said all of his co-defendants understood exactly what they were doing when he invited them to his home in Provence between 2011 and 2020 to have sex with his unconscious and unwitting wife, who divorced him after learning what he had done to her.

He claimed he had no difficulty finding dozens of men to take part.

In previous testimony, many defendants told the court that they could not have imagined that Dominique Pelicot was drugging his wife and that they were told she was a willing participant acting out a fantasy.

Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer, Beatrice Zavarro, said the prosecutor’s request for the maximum possible penalty against him was justified “in view of the gravity of the facts and the seriousness of the acts of which he is accused”.

“There’s no surprise in asking for 20 years, and that’s what I personally expected. But it’s still a shocking and heavy sentence for a man who’ll be 72 in a few days,” she said.

Prime Minister Michel Barnier, speaking in Paris at a centre for women victims of violence, said: “The French have been deeply touched by the incredible courage of Gisele Pelicot. This ongoing trial affects us all.”