As the moon rises over Avignon’s city walls, the night before the verdicts are announced, it is just high enough to illuminate the banner a small group of feminist activists has put up in a cloak-and-dagger operation. The banner reads: “Thank you, Gisele.”
The next morning, it is the first thing the lawyers, journalists, family members, and the 51 men accused of raping Gisele Pelicot see as they enter the court building. It is still dark at 07 a.m., but already there is a long line of people waiting outside.
Over the past four months, France and the whole world have reeled from the revelations in this case. Dominique Pelicot, Gisele Pelicot’s then-husband, drugged and raped his wife for almost a decade. He also offered her up to be raped by other men, and was proven to have arranged more than 200 such rapes.
Taken straight to prison
The accused are instantly recognizable. Not just because they’re trying to hide behind masks and under hoodies, but because women’s rights activists are chanting “Rapists, we see you!” as they arrive. One woman holds up a sign with a slogan predicting: “Christmas in prison.”
After 60 minutes of sentencing, it’s clear that Dominique Pelicot and dozens of his fellow rapists will indeed spend this Christmas, and many more, in prison. Presumably they had reckoned with this outcome, as many came to court that morning carrying suitcases and backpacks.
A rapist shedding a tear
The courtroom has an austere feel, like a school classroom, but the large magenta painting on the wall behind the lead judge, Roger Arata, creates a slightly intimidating effect. The television beside it on the right looks tiny, the wooden benches mundane.
In front of the painting sit five judges in black, while the lead judge wears red. Some of the rapists are sitting in the wooden dock; those who, like Dominique Pelicot, are already in custody, sit behind them in a glass box.
Dominique is in a grey jacket. At first expressionless, after a while he wipes away a tear from his cheek, keeping his eyes down.
The lead judge, Roger Arata, starts to read the 51 sentences at 09:45 a.m. Dominique Pelicot is first.
Guilty on all counts
“Monsieur Pelicot, the court has decided by a majority that you are guilty of aggravated rape,” says Arata.
Dominique Pelicot is also found guilty of all the other charges against him: the premeditated sedations, recording his crimes, the pornographic photos he took of his daughter Caroline without her consent.
In the space of one hour, Gisele Pelicot hears the sentence “you are guilty of aggravated rape” dozens of times. Roger Arata declares all the men guilty in the first half hour; the second is spent reading out their sentences.
One by one the men stand to receive their judgement. Some remain composed; others stare into space, or at the ground.
30 of the 51 men had pleaded innocent, while one is on the run. None of them are acquitted. They are given jail sentences of between three and 15 years; two are released on probation. The convicted men will have a chance to appeal.
Some of the activists waiting outside the courtroom declare that all the perpetrators should have received the maximum 20 years.
“The judgement is insufficient,” said Jean-Baptiste Reddé. He maintains that not only Dominique Pelicot but “all the other men who raped Madame Gisele Pelicot should also have been given 20 years.”
One of the rapists claims he thought it was a game
Gisele Pelicot listens closely as the sentences are read out, nodding from time to time, and occasionally whispering something to her lawyer. She looks her rapists in the eye. At first glance, these look like normal, unremarkable men.
Their ages range from 26 to 72. They are gardeners, journalists, plumbers, IT technicians. They are fathers, and husbands; they are bald, or have smoker’s voices; they have beards, wear glasses, cardigans, hoodies. The mothers of some of the men leave the courtroom in tears when they learn that they will have to visit their sons in prison this Christmas.
One of the men has shaved hair at the sides, an undercut. He is wearing jeans and a brown cardigan, and he too stands to receive his sentence. His name is Simone Mekenese. A 43-year-old former soldier, he was a neighbor of the Pelicot family. Dominique invited him over “to show him the goods,” after which they raped Gisele Pelicot together in November 2018.
Like many of the other rapists, Simone too insists he is innocent of rape. He says he believed it was all part of a game, while Gisele Pelicot — lying face down, unconscious — was pretending to be asleep. He only became suspicious, he says, when Dominique asked him to leave the room because his wife would wake up soon.
Simone says he never asked Gisele for her consent because “a man can do what he likes with a woman.” Later, under cross-examination, he revises this statement, saying he had expressed himself badly and clarifying that a man doesn’t have the right to hit his wife, either.
At the end of this last day, Gisele Pelicot gives a statement to the press.
“When I opened the doors of this trial on September 2, I wanted society to take up the debates that were happening there,” she said. “I have never regretted that decision.”
With that, it is Gisele Pelicot, not her rapists, who have the last word.
This article has been translated from German.
