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A French court on Thursday sentenced a man to 20 years in prison for drugging and raping his wife, now 72,  for nearly a decade by enlisting at least 51 men through a notorious website. 

The judges in France’s Avignon gave the verdict in the shocking case where Dominique Pelicot  would drug  his wife and then invite men to  rape her unconscious body. He used to enlist them through an infamous website, over a period of nine years, according to media reports.

While delivering the verdict, the presiding judge of the Avignon criminal court, Roger Arata, stated that Dominique Pelicot would only become eligible for parole after serving two-thirds of his sentence.

All 50 other defendants, aged between 27 and 74, were convicted in the French mass rape trial, with no acquittals. According to a report by AFP, they received sentences ranging from 3 to 20 years.

From 2011 to 2020, Dominique Pelicot, 72, drugged his wife with tranquilizers and sleeping pills without her knowledge. He conducted the act in a careful manner, by crushing the pills into powder and adding them to her food and drink.

The mass rape trial has turned 72-year-old Gisele Pelicot into a feminist icon as she decided to waive her anonymity, standing up to her aggressors in court. In her words, making “shame swap sides” from the victim to the rapist, according to a BBC report.

Verdict on the defendants

The court found 47 of the men guilty of rape, two guilty of attempted rape, and two guilty of sexual assault.

Dominique Pelicot, a pensioner who had been married for more than 50 years, allegedly mixed the anti-anxiety drug Lorazepam into his wife’s evening meal, La Monde reported as quoted by The Independent.

Pelicot also recorded the acts on video, which were later presented in court.

The case is considered unusual not only because of the involvement of a husband who enlisted strangers to rape his own wife for nearly a decade, but also due to the participation of men from various professions, including firefighters, security guards, and lorry drivers. 
They have earned the nickname Monsieur-Tout-Le-Monde (Mr. Everyman). Many of them are fathers, and some are even grandfathers.

The role of the website and the abuses

The men, who faced trial alongside Dominique Pelicot, include 50 other men aged 27 to 74. One of them, who did not abuse her, raped his own wife with Dominique Pelicot’s help.

In the trial that started in September, Gisele once told the court, “I thought we were a close couple.”

She hadn’t been aware that her husband was going on a notorious but now banned website called Coco.fr to invite local men to their home to have sex with her while she was comatose.

The couple are now divorced and have three children, who did not appear in court during their father’s trial.

Prosecutors’ demands and defence arguments

Prosecutors had sought prison sentences ranging from four to 18 years for nearly all the other defendants, who stand accused of raping a comatose Gisele Pelicot.

Dominique Pelicot admitted to the charges during the trial and expressed remorse to his family. However, the majority of the 50 accused—strangers Pelicot had encountered online—denied the rape charges. They claimed they believed they were participating in a consensual sexual game arranged by the couple, arguing that the husband’s consent negated any suggestion of rape.

How accused relied on ‘consent’ to escape conviction

The defence has centred on the legal definition of rape, which in France currently requires proof of sexual penetration “by violence, coercion, threat, or surprise.” As a result, prosecutors must establish intent to commit rape.

Public prosecutor Laure Chabaud argued in court that the outdated notion of “since she didn’t say anything, she gave her consent” no longer holds.

In solidarity with Gisèle Pelicot, thousands have taken part in protests across France, while women have gathered outside the courthouse daily, chanting a powerful phrase highlighted by her lawyers: “Shame is changing sides.”

Advocates have used this case to call for the inclusion of explicit consent in France’s rape laws, aligning them with those of other European nations.

Gisèle Pelicot’s courageous stand

Gisèle Pelicot has been present almost every day of the trial, arriving at court in her sunglasses just before nine o’clock. Her choice to forgo anonymity is exceptionally rare, yet she has remained resolute throughout. “I want all women who have been raped to say: Madame Pelicot did it, I can too.”

Despite projecting strength, she has openly acknowledged that “behind her facade of strength lies a field of ruins.” While her actions have earned widespread praise, she views herself as a reluctant hero.

“She keeps repeating, ‘I am normal,’ she does not want to be considered as an icon,” her lawyer, Stéphane Babonneau, told the BBC’s Emma Barnett.

Her message, as conveyed through her lawyer, is that “women generally have a strength in them that they can’t even imagine and that they have to trust themselves.”

Pelicot’s history of offenses

Pelicot enlisted the men on “a son insu” – a French internet forum where members discuss performing sexual acts on women without their consent and often when they are drugged.

However, his crime did not come to light until a security guard reported him to police for taking photographs under women’s skirts in a supermarket.

According to a BBC report, Dominique Pelicot was also found guilty of attempting to commit aggravated rape against the wife of one of his co-defendants, Jean-Pierre Marechal.

Dominique was also convicted of taking indecent images of his daughter, Caroline, and his daughters-in-law, Aurore and Celine.

Prosecutors had sought prison terms ranging from four to 20 years, the latter being the maximum penalty for aggravated rape charges.