Raped under sedation by over 50 men for years: Verdict expected in Pelicot case
By Rachel Boßmeyer
Avignon - The mammoth trial involving years of rape in the south of France with 51 defendants is drawing to a close. The court's decision on the abuse of Gisèle Pelicot is expected from 9.30 a.m. after 14 weeks of hearings.

Pelicot's ex-husband had repeatedly drugged his then wife for almost ten years, had sex with her and offered her to strangers for rape, as he confessed in court. He is facing 20 years in prison.
Gisèle Pelicot is believed to have suffered around 200 rapes in this way, as she stated in court. Her husband recorded the acts on hundreds of videos and photos. Investigators suspect that there are a dozen more perpetrators, but they have not been identified.
Pelicot was unaware of the years of sexual assaults because of the strong medication that her then husband mixed into her food. The crimes only came to light when Dominique Pelicot was arrested in September 2020 for filming women under their skirts in a supermarket.
Investigators then found the abuse images on him.
Many defendants want acquittal

In addition to the ex-husband, 50 men are on trial. They are said to have been between 21 and 68 years old at the time of the crime. The public prosecutor only accused one of them of sexual assault and demanded four years in prison. The other 49 were charged with rape and pleaded for prison sentences of between 10 and 18 years.
The defendants, however, painted a different picture. Only about a dozen admitted to the charges. Some admitted that they had penetrated Gisèle Pelicot without her consent, but denied that it had been rape - for example because her husband at the time had agreed to it.
Others said in court that they had been under the influence of their husband. Some went so far as to claim that they had been raped against their will or involuntarily. More than half of the defendants had their defense demand acquittal.
The local feminist organization "Les Amazones d'Avignon", however, has a different outcome of the trial in mind. The verdict should be exemplary, demanded the group's chairwoman, Blandine Deverlanges, in an interview with the German Press Agency. There should never again be excuses for rapists.
The lawyers for the joint plaintiffs also urged that the accused be held accountable. "All of them understood, at least when they left this house of horror, that others came before them and others would follow," said lawyer Antoine Camus. "Everyone contributed in their measure, at their level, to this monstrosity, to this martyrdom of this woman."
Criminal law cannot fully grasp the gravity of the crimes.