Paris, France – In what has shocked not only France but the whole world, a businessman and electrician, Dominique Pelicot, 71, recruited 72 men on the internet who raped his wife, Wife Gisèle Pelicot, 72, about 200 times.
Dominique who hails from Mazan in south-eastern France, was reported to have recorded all the horrible incidents on tape after drugging his wife. However, only 51 out of the 72 suspects were convicted.
While Dominique was sent to 20 years in prison, the other 50 men were sent to lesser prison terms. The incident happened in nearly 10 years, between July 2011 – October 2020.
Gisèle and Dominique Pelicot were born in 1952 and married in 1973. They have three children together: Caroline Darian, David Pelicot, and Florian Pelicot.
Gisèle worked in administration at the state electricity company, while Dominique worked as an electrician and an estate agent and set up several businesses that ultimately failed.
Gisèle said in court that they were a perfect family. She also said in court that she had had a three-year affair with a colleague. The couple had been divorced for a short period of time for financial reasons before remarrying.
According to reports. Dominique Pelicot was arrested on 12 September 2020 after he had been apprehended by a security guard for upskirting women using his mobile phone at an E.Leclerc supermarket in Carpentras, near Mazan. He was released on bail pending investigation of his two mobile phones, laptop, and other digital equipment that had been seized at his home. Investigation of the equipment showed that he had been a part of a private chatroom called à son insu (“without her knowledge”), hosted on the coco.fr website, in which members discussed performing sexual acts on women without their consent, often after administering drugs to them. The website, which later moved its domain registration from France to Guernsey after Pelicot’s arrest, was said to have been connected to more than 23,000 French criminal cases between 2021 and 2024 and was shut down in June 2024. In the chatroom Dominique Pelicot invited other men to rape his wife; Skype messages were also found in which he boasted of drugging his wife and invited strangers to rape her.
On a USB stick connected to Dominique Pelicot’s computer, investigators found a folder called “abuses” containing more than 20,000 images and videos of his unconscious wife being raped. The videos had been meticulously filed with explicit titles and the names of the men.
The investigators identified 92 separate incidents of rape committed on Gisèle Pelicot by 72 different men between July 2011 and October 2020. It took the police two years to identify and locate 50 of the perpetrators; the rest remain unidentified. The men were aged between 21 and 68 at the time of the rapes.
Images were also found on Dominique Pelicot’s computer of his daughters-in-law in the shower, which had been taken with a hidden camera, and of his semi-naked daughter Caroline Darian unconscious on a bed as if she had been drugged.
Dominique Pelicot was re-arrested on 2 November 2020 and charged with aggravated rape, drugging, and other sexual offences. He was also accused of violating the privacy of his wife, daughter, and two daughters-in-law by covertly taking and disseminating intimate images of them. He immediately admitted his guilt.
On the same day, Gisèle Pelicot was asked to attend a separate interview by the police. Questioned about her sex life, she said she had never taken part in wife swapping or threesomes. She was shown a photograph but did not recognise the sleeping woman or the man raping her. It was only when shown further images that she recognised herself. She later testified that she had asked the police officer to stop showing her the images: “It was unbearable. I was inert, in my bed, and a man was raping me. My world fell apart.”
Dominique Pelicot told investigators that the abuse started after his wife had been prescribed lorazepam (Temesta), an anxiolytic drug, which caused her to be drowsy. He took advantage of this by secretly adding Temesta to his wife’s food and drinks, causing her to lose consciousness and allowing him to commit sexual acts, such as anal sex, which his wife had not wished to participate in. He would film the abuse, sometimes committed after he had taken Viagra, and share the videos online. He then invited strangers from the online chatroom to watch him abusing his wife, and on occasion abusing her themselves. No money changed hands. The men were given strict instructions, for example, to avoid smelling of fragrance or cigarette smoke, in case it alerted Gisèle Pelicot to their presence. They were not required to use condoms, even though one man, who abused Gisèle Pelicot six times, was HIV positive. Although Gisèle Pelicot did not contract HIV, she was found to have four sexually transmitted infections after the abuse came to light. To drug his wife, Dominique Pelicot obtained additional Temesta from his own doctor; he had been prescribed 450 pills in one year alone.
The abuse took a significant toll on Gisèle Pelicot’s health. She lost weight and her hair started to fall out. She experienced memory loss and at times spoke incoherently, to the extent that she worried that she might have Alzheimer’s disease or a brain tumour. She visited several doctors but was always accompanied by her husband, who blamed her symptoms on exhaustion caused by looking after their grandchildren. None of the doctors suspected that she was being drugged. A psychologist said that Dominique Pelicot had trouble accepting the harm he had done, instead complaining that the trial had “destroyed his life”, and that if he hadn’t been arrested, he “would still be happy, and she too – everything would have continued the same way.”
In 2022, the Pelicots’ daughter Caroline Darian published a book about the case titled Et j’ai cessé de t’appeler Papa (And I Stopped Calling You Dad). She also established a non-profit organisation called M’endors Pas (Don’t sedate me) to raise awareness of drug-facilitated sexual assault.
The judges retired to chambers on the morning of 16 December. They returned to court on the morning of 19 December to deliver their verdicts. Dominique Pelicot was found guilty of all charges and received a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment.
The remaining 50 defendants were also found guilty. Two of them were found guilty of aggravated sexual assault and received sentences of three years imprisonment, two were found guilty of attempted rape with aggravating factors and received sentences of five and six years imprisonment, while the rest were found guilty of aggravated rape and received sentences ranging from five to 13 years.
Gisèle Pelicot
The Court Verdicts on 19 December 2024
Dominique Pelicot sentenced to 20 years imprisonment
Criminal court judges sentenced the main defendant, Dominique Pelicot, to the full sentence demanded, 20 years in prison, for drugging his former wife Gisèle for 10 years, so that she could be raped by him and dozens of other men, while being filmed. Nearly 200 rapes were recorded.
He was also found guilty of recording and possessing images, taken without their knowledge, of his wife, daughter and daughters-in-law.
He will have to serve at least two-thirds of his sentence in prison. He will also be registered on the national sex offenders register.
Not all the defendants were aware that Gisèle Pelicot had been drugged
The aggravating circumstance of rape or attempted rape “by a group” has so far been retained for all the defendants. This is not the case for the other aggravating circumstance, that of “administration of a substance,” which means that the court believes that not all of the defendants were aware of Gisèle Pelicot’s state of chemical submission.
Sentences for the other defendants currently below the recommended minimum sentences
The initial sentences handed down for Dominique Pelicot’s other 50 co-defendants are, for the time being, well below the recommended minimum sentence of 10 years for the rapes.
Defendant was acquitted of rape but found guilty of sexual assault
The court reclassified the rape charge against Saifedine G. as sexual assault. It therefore acquitted him of the rape.
Only the defendant charged with sexual assault, not rape, was found guilty
Joseph C., aged 69, the only defendant prosecuted for the offence of sexual assault rather than rape, has been found guilty. The prosecution had requested four years in prison.
Jean-Pierre M. sentenced to 12 years for raping and drugging his own wife
Jean-Pierre M. was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The prosecutor had requested 17 years’ imprisonment.
Aged 63, he was the only defendant not to appear for acts committed on Gisèle Pelicot, but on his own wife, whom he drugged so that Dominique Pelicot could rape her.
All 51 defendants found guilty of rape or sexual assault
The court reclassified the rape charge against Saifeddine G. as sexual assault. None of the accused was acquitted, all were found guilty.
The key points of the verdicts
- Dominique Pelicot was sentenced to the maximum penalty of 20 years’ imprisonment by the criminal court in Avignon on the morning of Thursday, December 19, bringing to a close the three-month French mass rape trial that captured the attention of the world and became a landmark trial in the history of violence against women.
- There were no acquittals for the other 50 defendants, all of whom were found guilty but sentenced to far less than the sentences requested. Sentences started at three years’ imprisonment, two of which were suspended. Four defendants were convicted of rape or attempted rape and were sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, partly suspended.
Dominique Pelicot and his lawyer will decide within 10 days whether to appeal
Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, spoke to the cameras as she left the courtroom, declaring that she had taken note of the court’s decision to sentence her client to 20 years in prison.
She added that she and Dominique Pelicot had not yet decided whether he would appeal the decision. “We will make a decision within the 10-day interjection period,” she declared, before adding that Pelicot “is somewhat stunned by the prison term imposed on him.”
Clear difference in the sentences handed down to Dominique Pelicot and his co-defendants
The court marked a clear difference between Dominique Pelicot and his co-defendants: The second-highest sentence was 15 years. This sentence was handed down to Romain V., who had been to the Pelicots’ home in Mazan six times, even though he was HIV-positive. Because he had been taking medical treatment for his condition for 20 years, he had a low viral load and was therefore not contagious at the time of the events, according to his lawyer, who provided medical documentation. The other three heaviest sentences – 13 years’ imprisonment – were handed down to defendants who had also visited the Mazan home six times: Charly A., Jérôme V. and Dominique D.
Tense atmosphere after sentences are handed down
As the sentences against the 51 defendants were handed down, most of which fell short of the prosecution’s demands, feminist activists, who had come to witness the verdict and lend their support to Gisèle Pelicot, demonstrated their disappointment and anger outside the Avignon courthouse, chanting: “Shame on justice!” The defendants have not yet left the courtroom.
Of the 51 men convicted, 41 are in custody, three deferred sentences and six released
Following the verdict, the 18 defendants already in custody were kept in detention. Of the 32 who appeared at the trial free, 23 were immediately placed in custody, and three will be incarcerated in suitable facilities and are able to leave the courthouse.
Six defendants were released, either because the sentence handed down has already been covered by the pre-trial detention, or because their sentence will be adjusted (some of them could have to wear an electric tag instead of going to prison, for instance).
In total, the prosecution had requested 652 years’ imprisonment for the 51 defendants, who were ultimately sentenced to 428 years behind bars.
Pelicot children ‘disappointed by low sentences’
The children of Dominique Pelicot believe the verdicts handed down to the guilty men in the case were too mild, a family member told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“The children are disappointed by these low sentences,” said the family member, asking not to be identified, after a court in Avignon sentenced Dominique Pelicot’s co-defendants to between three and 15 years in jail, with two of the sentences suspended.
Gisèle Pelicot is confident ‘men and women can live in harmony, mutual respect and understanding’
In a very sober and dignified statement, Gisèle Pelicot said she respected the court’s verdict and expressed her “confidence” in the future.
“It is with deep emotion that I speak to you today. This trial has been a very difficult ordeal, and at this moment I am thinking first and foremost of my three children, David, Caroline and Florian,” said Gisèle Pelicot, adding that it was also for her grandchildren that she was “fighting this battle,” as well as my daughters-in-law.
“I’m also thinking of all the other families affected by this tragedy. I’m also thinking of the unrecognised victims whose stories often remain in the shadows. I want you to know that we share the same struggle”, continued Gisèle Pelicot. She went on to thank the victims’ aid association that supported her, the journalists who followed the trial, and her lawyers.
She concluded: “When I opened the doors of this trial on September 2, I wanted society to be able to seize the debates that took place there. I have never regretted that decision. I now have confidence in our ability to collectively grasp a future in which everyone, women and men alike, can live in harmony, mutual respect and understanding.”
Asked about the sentences handed down, Gisèle Pelicot said, “I respect the court and the verdict.”
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