Reactions to Pelicot

Sentencing is an “important signal for victims of violence”

The victim of violence Gisèle Pelicot in court on Thursday

(Bild: AP/Lewis Joly)

Today, Thursday, Dominique Pelicot was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the aggravated rape of his ex-wife. There were also guilty verdicts for all 50 other co-defendants. The case was followed by a large audience, with around 180 media from all over the world attending the trial.

As reported, Pelicot had repeatedly drugged his then wife Gisèle for almost ten years, raped her and also offered her for rape to dozens of strangers on the internet. He confessed in court. The case came to light by chance: the 72-year-old was arrested in September 2020 for filming women up their skirts in a supermarket. Police officers examined the Frenchman's computer and discovered hundreds of photos and videos of the crimes against his then wife.

Gisèle Pelicot is said to have been raped around 200 times. The trial has been running since September and has caused a worldwide sensation. Today, Thursday, Dominique Pelicot was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was found guilty not only of rape, but also of secretly recording his wife, daughter and daughters-in-law at the time. At the end of his sentence, a decision will be made on whether he should be placed in preventive detention. Whether he will appeal has not yet been decided, his lawyer said after the verdict was announced.

Son David

(Bild: AFP/Sylvain Thomas)

(Bild: AFP/Clement Mahoudeau)

(Bild: AP/Lewis Joly)

Supporters of Gisèle in court in Avignon

(Bild: AFP/Clement Mahoudeau)

(Bild: AFP/Clement Mahoudeau)

"Rape affects women everywhere"
The co-defendants received prison sentences of between three and 15 years. None of the 50 men were acquitted. "Everyone contributed to this monstrosity, to this woman's martyrdom, to their own degree, at their own level," said Antoine Camus, a lawyer for the co-defendants. "Rape affects women all over the world. That is why the whole world is watching what is happening here," said Ghislaine Sainte Catherine from the feminist association Les Amazones d'Avignon. She had previously called for the sentence to be exemplary.

Children would have wanted harsher punishments
Is that it now? The three adult children of the ex-couple were "disappointed", saying that they thought the sentences were too "low". Some feminist organizations also share this view. "The fight against impunity is far from over", one of them said in a statement.

Here you can see a statement from France's Prime Minister.

Gisèle Pelicot has "become a figure of violence against women", wrote French Prime Minister François Bayrou on Thursday evening on the X platform. The fight "obliges us all" and must be continued. The first political reactions to the ruling from Avignon have also already come from Austria. It is an "important signal to all women affected by violence", said SPÖ Women's Chairwoman Eva-Maria Holzleitner in a statement on Thursday. "Gisèle Pelicot has shown with her great courage to make this trial public that it is worth bringing perpetrators to justice. The shame lies with the perpetrators and not with the women who have been abused and raped for years."

Greens: "Omnipresent and trivialized"
Meri Disoski, women's spokesperson for the Green Party, expressed a similar view: "The shocking brutality with which Dominique Pelicot offered to rape Gisèle Pelicot to other men on the internet and the fact that at least 74 men took up this offer and raped Ms Pelicot shows us how ubiquitous and trivialized sexualized violence against women still is." The guilty verdicts would "underline the fact that there is no tolerance for violence against women in a state governed by the rule of law."