FRENCHMAN DOMINIQUE PELICOT, who admitted enlisting dozens of strangers to rape his heavily-sedated wife, has been found guilty on all charges and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Dominique Pelicot, 72, had already admitted to drugging Gisele Pelicot for almost a decade so he and strangers he recruited online could rape her.
His 50 co-defendants in the case were also convicted by the court, with no acquittals. Their sentences range from 3 to 20 years.
Tension was palpable in the courtroom, where a heavy police presence was deployed.
Many defendants arrived at the hearing with their bags packed ready for prison. One of them was in tears as he hugged his companion before entering the courtroom.
“Mr Pelicot, you are found guilty of the aggravated rape of Gisele Pelicot,” said the presiding judge of the criminal court in Avignon, Roger Arata.
Delivering sentence, Arata said Dominique Pelicot will not be eligible for parole until he has served two thirds of his sentence.
Gisele Pelicot, 72, has become a feminist hero at home and abroad for refusing to be ashamed, waiving her right to a closed trial and standing up to her aggressors in court.
In his final statement on Monday. Dominique Pelicot reaffirmed that he had told “the whole truth” since the beginning of the trial on September 2.
“I would like to start by hailing the courage of my ex-wife,” he said sitting in the glass defendants’ box.
“I regret what I did, making (my family) suffer… I ask them for forgiveness,” he said.
“I can tell my whole family that I love them,” he said.
While Gisele Pelicot was present in court on Monday, their three children, pointedly, did not come to court to hear their father’s last statement.
Turning to the five judges who will issue the verdict, he said: “There you go, you have the rest of my life in your hands.”
As she left the court, supporters greeted her with applause and shouts of “bravo Gisele!”
Several defence lawyers have attempted to shift the totality of the responsibility to Dominique Pelicot, arguing their clients were victims of a “monster” who had manipulated them into assaulting Gisele Pelicot.
Prosecutors have acknowledged the severity of their sentencing demands for the other accused, which are above the national average terms for rape convictions, but have emphasised the importance of the trial in sending a message to women.
After Dominique Pelicot, all the other accused were given the chance to make final statements on Monday, although half of them simply said “nothing to add”.
Around 15 of the men, however, chose to ask Gisele Pelicot for forgiveness.
“It is indeed your body that I subjected to this rape,” declared Cedric G., 51.
“I apologise to Mrs Pelicot, I regret it and I ask her forgiveness,” declared Romain V., 63, one of four accused who responded six times to Dominique Pelicot’s invitation posted on the Internet.
Another accused who went six times to the Pelicot family home in the town of Mazan in southern France, Jerome V., 46, said that “whatever sentence” he is given at the end of the week, he will not appeal, “out of respect for the victim, so that she does not have to endure” a new trial.
The prosecution has requested a 16-year jail term for him.
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