At least 15 of the men found guilty of raping or sexually abusing Gisèle Pelicot have appealed against their convictions and will be given a second trial.
All 51 men, including her husband, Dominique Pelicot, were convicted and given prison sentences of between three and 15 years before Christmas after a trial lasting three and a half months. Dominique Pelicot was sentenced to 20 years.
The court found 47 men guilty of rape, two of attempted rape and two of sexual assault. The men have until midnight on Monday to lodge an appeal. Apart from Pelicot’s jail term, all the sentences were below that requested by the public prosecutors, who also have until the same deadline to appeal.
An appeal hearing, which will go over all the evidence again, will be held in Nimes and heard by an ordinary jury, unlike the Avignon trial that was overseen by a panel of professional judges.
After the marathon hearing in Avignon, Béatrice Zavarro, lawyer for Dominique Pelicot, 72, a former electrician who had admitted drugging and raping his wife and inviting at least 50 and possibly more than 80 men into the couple’s Provençal home to rape her, said she would discuss with her client whether to appeal against the verdict.
Pelicot’s now ex-wife Gisèle, 72, believes she could have been raped by him and strangers more than 200 times between 2011 and 2020. Pelicot was only caught after police arrested him for filming up the skirts of female shoppers in a local supermarket and found tens of thousands of photographs and videos of the abuse.
Among those who have appealed against their verdicts is Charly Arbo, 30, a vineyard worker, who went to the Pelicot’s home in the town of Mazan six times and was given a 13-year jail term. On the first occasion he was 22 and Gisèle Pelicot was 64. He was also accused of raping her on the night of her 66th birthday. Video evidence showed Arbo discussing drugging and raping his own mother with Dominique Pelicot.
Redouan El Farihi, 55, a former hospital anaesthesia nurse, who was sentenced to eight years, has also appealed against his verdict. He denied rape, saying Dominique Pelicot had “tricked” him and insisted he had not known Gisèle had been drugged, despite videos showing her unconscious and inert.
Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Stéphane Babonneau, who said the trial represented a level of depravity he had never before experienced, told the Observer last weekend she was willing to attend any new trial. “She has told us she will be there,” he said. “Maybe not every day, but she says she will go.”
After the verdicts were given on 19 December, Babonneau said: “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.”
Gisèle Pelicot, a retired logistics manager, became an international feminist figurehead after insisting the trial be open to the press and public and the videos of her abuse be shown in open court so that “shame changes sides”. Since the high-profile trial there have been calls to tighten French rape laws, including introducing the concept of “consent”, which is absent. The trial also threw a spotlight on attitudes towards the rape and sexual abuse of women in France.
“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,” Babonneau said.
“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.”
