It took just over four years, and 67 days in court, but Gisèle Pelicot is said to feel “relieved and appeased” about the judges’ decision to convict all the men accused of raping or sexually assaulting her while she was drugged and unconscious.
After a final declaration that she “respected” the sentences handed down in Avignon, her lawyers said she was now “absolutely exhausted” and glad the marathon trial was over.
“She is relieved, really relieved, that all the accused were convicted for what they did to her and she was relieved she managed to reach the end of this very long and painful process,” her lawyer Stéphane Babonneau told the Observer.
“In the beginning she said to us ‘if I last two weeks it will be good’, but she stayed until the end,” he said.
“However, it has been a fight for her every single day and many times she felt she wanted to leave. I would say she is at peace with the fact the verdicts acknowledge that she was the victim of all the accused.”
Babonneau, who has been immersed in the grim case since taking it on in 2022, added: “From Gisèle Pelicot’s point of view, there is no sentence that will give her back what she has lost. She will never feel comforted or somehow compensated by the fact that 50 families have been broken up for Christmas. There can be no satisfaction for her in that.
“All Gisèle Pelicot wanted is to have the accused convicted for what they did to her. As for the personal sentences, she respects the decision of the court and finds no solace in them.”
The 15-week trial ended on Thursday when Pelicot’s former husband Dominique, 72, was given the maximum 20-year sentence for drugging her, raping her and inviting at least 50, and possibly more than 80, strangers into their home in the Provençal town of Mazan to rape her.
The court found all 50 co-accused guilty of sexual offences – 47 of rape, two of attempted rape and two of sexual assault – and sentenced them to between three and 15 years.
Gisèle Pelicot, who turned 72 during the trial, believes she could have been raped more than 200 times between 2011 and 2020.
Lawyer Antoine Camus, who represented her, and the couple’s children David, Caroline and Florian, said the sentences, although lower than those requested by the public prosecutor, were “intelligent” and that the five judges had handed down personalised judgments for each case.
“What was important for Gisèle Pelicot was that all the accused were condemned; that they were all judged responsible for what they did to her and she was not a victim for nothing. For that, Gisèle is relieved,” Camus said.
On Monday, the court is expected to publish its “motivations”, or explanations, for each verdict and sentence. The convicted men now have 10 days to appeal, which could lead to a new trial held with a jury, as opposed to the professional magistrates who judged the Avignon case.
Babonneau said Gisèle Pelicot was ready to attend any trial.
“She has told us she will be there,” he said. “Maybe not every day, but she says she will go.”
Agnès Fichot, a lawyer involved in the historic rape trial in Aix-en-Provence in 1978 that led to a change in French law, praised the Avignon court for adding “legal social sanctions” to their sentences, obliging those convicted to undergo medical treatment for a number of years.
“I’m convinced prison is not the place to make perverts aware of their perversity and even less to put them back on the path of a [normal] sexual life,” she said. “On the contrary, there is a major risk that it feeds and cultivates it.”
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The French government is now facing calls to introduce the concept of “consent” into French rape law – an issue that divides women’s organisations. Camus advocates for caution.
“The law as it exists is not perfect, but even without consent it worked in our case,” he said. “We should reflect carefully about adding to the law and make sure any change throws light on the abuser, not the victim.”
Lawyer Isabelle Steyer said it would be months before she expected to see whether the issues raised in the Pelicot trial had brought any change, particularly to men’s attitudes.
“I plead in a rape case every week and I haven’t seen any change in the culture of rape so far,” she told the television channel BFMTV.
Gisèle Pelicot will now spend Christmas with her family and friends, before deciding whether to become more active in the campaign for better treatment of rape victims, which her case has galvanised. In court, she said she wanted every woman who suffered sexual assault to look at her ordeal and to know “you are not alone”.
In taking the unusual decision to allow the press and public into the trial, Gisèle Pelicot became an icon for women everywhere, giving feminism a new slogan: “Shame must change sides.”
“Right now, she is exhausted and wants to rest and have a bit of anonymity for a few weeks,” Camus said. “Afterwards, she will reflect on what she wants to do, but I’m sure she won’t spend her days making jam. The battle she has fought so well has given some sense to what she has suffered. She will now think how her personal story might be more widely useful.’
Babonneau added: “She has been invited everywhere in the world, and she needs to take some time and distance to think about whether to do that or to return to relative anonymity and say ‘I have done my part’. Of course, complete anonymity is something she will never get back. I think she will do something in between. She won’t disappear completely.
“We were concerned about after the trial, but she said ‘I survived 2 November 2020, I can survive anything now,” Babonneau said, referring to the date on which Gisèle Pelicot learned that her husband, arrested for filming up the skirts of women in a supermarket, had been abusing her and inviting strangers to do the same.
“She has a very positive attitude and this is how she has faced what happened to her. Even at her lowest point she told us ‘I looked to the future otherwise I felt I would be swallowed by a dark place and could never live’.”
He added: “I have had the privilege of being with her every day, I feel I know her and I have faith in her. She is orientated towards the future and thinking it will be better and full of positive things.
“What she is doing is a legacy for the future, and she hopes that it will inspire others. She doesn’t want to be seen as an icon or someone extraordinary.”
