Dozens of men including the ex-husband of Gisèle Pelicot were found guilty of raping and sexually assaulting her in a historic trial that shocked France.
Pelicot, 72, arrived to the courthouse in the southern town of Avignon to cheers and applause from a crowd of supporters, with a large banner reading “MERCI GISELE,” or “thank you Gisèle, hanging opposite the building.
After entering the courtroom she watched as Roger Arata, the lead judge, sentenced her husband Dominique Pelicot to 20 years in prison. He had earlier pled guilty to drugging her and inviting dozens of men to rape her while she was unconscious over the span of a decade.
Another 46 other men were found guilty of rape, two of attempted rape and two guilty of sexual assault in the high profile case, according to NBC News’ British broadcasting partner Sky News. They ranged from 26 to 74 in age and were handed sentences from three to 13 years. Collectively they will serve more than 400 years.
Around 15 had admitted to the facts, although only a handful of the men accused expressed remorse in the lead-up to their verdicts.
In a side room, family members of the defendants watched the proceedings unfold on television screens, with some bursting into tears and gasping as the sentences were revealed, The Associated Press reported.
With emotions running high, some 200 police officers were expected to be deployed in and around the courthouse, packed with family members of the accused, spectators and journalists from around the world. More than 150 journalists were accredited to cover the trial, which many activists see as a watershed moment for women’s rights in France.
In an earlier hearing, it was revealed that Pelicot only learned of the horrors she endured when police started an investigation into her husband after a security guard caught him filming up the skirts of women with his smartphone.
Investigators told they had found videos on her husband’s devices that suggested she herself had been the victim of a major crime.
While she could have remained anonymous, she called for the trial to be held in public and she instructed her lawyers to fight for harrowing video and other evidence to be played out in open court.
She said she was doing this in a bid to put an end to the “macho, patriarchal society that trivializes rape.”
Campaigners against sexual violence had been hopeful that Pelicot’s case would represent a turning point in the fight against rape culture and in the difficulties that sexual assault survivors often face in obtaining justice.
And in France, they told NBC News earlier this week, that they hoped to transform a society in which 75% of women said they believe they are not treated equally in a 2024 government study and where last year, 230,000 women reported they had been victims of sexual violence.
Linda Hervieux contributed.
