Judges in France are delivering verdicts in the Gisèle Pelicot historic rape trial

AVIGNON, France (AP) — A panel of five judges in France is delivering verdicts on Thursday for more than four dozen men charged with aggravated rape and sexual assault on Gisèle Pelicot in a historic case that has profoundly shaken the country over the past several months.

Among the men on trial is Dominique Pelicot, the now ex-husband of the 72-year-old grandmother who admitted that for years, he knocked his wife of 50 years out with drugs so he and strangers he recruited online could abuse her while he filmed the assaults.

The appalling ordeal inflicted over nearly a decade on Gisèle Pelicot in what she thought was a loving marriage and her courage during the bruising and stunning trial have transformed the retired power company worker into a feminist hero of the nation.

Stretching over more than three months, the trial galvanized campaigners against sexual violence and spurred calls for tougher measures to stamp out rape culture.

Dominique Pelicot, also 72, and 49 other men were tried in the southern French city of Avignon for aggravated rape and attempted rape and face up to 20 years imprisonment if convicted.

Prosecutors asked that he get the maximum penalty and for sentences of 10-18 years for the others. They also requested a four-year prison term for another defendant who was tried for aggravated sexual assault.

The 51 men were all accused of having taken part in Dominique Pelicot’s sordid rape and abuse fantasies that were acted out in the couple’s retirement home in the small Provence town of Mazan and elsewhere.

Dominique Pelicot testified that he hid tranquilizers in food and drink that he gave his then-wife, knocking her out so profoundly that he could do what he wanted to her for hours.

One of the men was on trial not for assaulting Gisèle Pelicot but for drugging and raping his own wife — with the help and drugs from Dominique Pelicot, who was also tried for raping the other man’s wife.

The five judges were voting by secret ballot in their rulings, with a majority vote required to convict and also for the sentences of those found guilty.

Campaigners against sexual violence are hoping for exemplary prison terms and view the trial as a possible turning point in the fight against rape culture and the use of drugs to subdue victims.

Dominique Pelicot first came to the attention of police in September 2020, when a supermarket security guard caught him surreptitiously filming up women’s skirts.

Police subsequently found his library of homemade images documenting years of abuse inflicted on his wife — more than 20,000 photos and videos in all, stored on computer drives and catalogued in folders marked “abuse,” “her rapists,” “night alone” and other titles.

The abundance of evidence led police to the other defendants. In the videos, investigators counted 72 different abusers but were not able to identify them all.

Although some of the accused — including Dominique Pelicot — acknowledged they were guilty of rape, many did not, even in the face of video evidence. The hearings sparked wider debate in France about whether the country’s legal definition of rape should be expanded to include specific mention of consent.

Some defendants argued that Dominique Pelicot’s consent covered his wife, too. Some sought to excuse their behavior by insisting that they hadn’t intended to rape anyone when they responded to the husband’s invitations to come to their home. Some laid blame at his door, saying he misled them into thinking they were taking part in consensual kink.

John Leicester, The Associated Press