Dominique Pelicot will not appeal against guilty verdict

The ex-husband of Gisèle Pelicot has declined to appeal his 20-year prison sentence for drugging and raping his wife and allowing dozens of other men to rape her as she lay unconscious in a case that appalled France.

Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, told broadcaster France Info on Monday that he wanted to spare his ex-wife the ordeal of another trial, though she also admitted a new trial could also deliver a harsher sentence for her client.

Zavarro said Dominique Pelicot believes “the judicial page should be turned and that this chapter should be considered closed”.

The court found him guilty of rape and all other charges against him and sentenced him to 20 years in prison, the maximum possible sentence. He will not be eligible to request early release until he has served at least two-thirds of his sentence.

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, said during the trial she believes she may have been raped as she lay drugged by her then-husband and other men invited at her home more than 200 times between 2011 and 2020.

She was unaware of the rapes until after her ex-husband was caught filming up the skirts of female shoppers in a supermarket near the couple’s home in Mazan. Detectives investigating the case found scores of homemade videos of the abuse on a hard drive and on his phone.

Zavarro added that 17 of the 50 men who were also found guilty this month during the three-month trial would appeal their sentences.

The court in the southern French city of Avignon handed down sentences ranging from three to 15 years’ imprisonment for the 50 men, who were variously found guilty of rape, attempted rape and sexual assault.

The trial captured intense media attention in France and around the world, and has spurred a national reckoning about rape culture. Gisèle Pelicot, who chose to waive her right to a closed trial, became an international feminist figurehead for putting her own case into public view, allowing shocking evidence — including her husband’s homemade videos of the rapes — to be admitted in court.

She insisted throughout the trial that she wanted her ordeal to be made public in order that “shame changes sides”.

The trial prompted calls for France to tighten its rape laws, including by introducing a concept of “consent” which is currently absent. Statistics show that 94% of rape cases reported to French police are dropped without action.

Dominique Pelicot is currently implicated in two other cases. He could face trial for an attempted rape in Seine-et-Marne in 1999, and for the rape and subsequent murder of a 23-year-old estate agent in Paris in 1991.