Gisèle Pelicot is ready to face another trial if needed, her lawyer has said, after two defendants in the mass rape trial lodged appeals and her ex-husband, Dominique Pelicot, considers appealing against his 20-year prison sentence.
“In any case, she has no fear of it, that is what she told us,” one of her lawyers, Stéphane Babonneau, told France Inter radio on Friday.
He said Gisèle Pelicot had felt a “sense of relief” after the panel of five judges returned guilty verdicts for all of the 51 accused in the trial. “She is very happy to be going home, she is very relieved,” he said.
It was initially the horror of the case that made headlines around the world. Over nearly a decade, Dominique Pelicot had drugged his then wife and recruited strangers online to come to their home and rape her. Throughout it all, he filmed the rapes and kept meticulous records.
But as the trial got under way in September, the strength and resilience of Gisèle Pelicot began to make waves around the world. The 72-year-old grandmother was hailed as a feminist icon while her insistence that shame must change sides was credited with galvanising a global conversation on sexual violence.
On Friday, Emmanuel Macron joined the many people around the world who had paid tribute to Gisèle Pelicot. “Thank you Gisèle Pelicot,” the French president wrote on social media. “Your dignity and your courage have moved and inspired France and the world.”
Babonneau said his client did not want to be seen as an icon. “What she doesn’t want is for other victims to think ‘this lady has extraordinary strength, I couldn’t do that,’” he said. “She doesn’t want to be seen as someone extraordinary. And in reality, she is someone who remains very simple and who has decided to try to live her life in the most normal way.”
Gisèle Pelicot told reporters on Thursday that she respected the decisions of the court, but on Friday her eldest son said he had been left disappointed by many of the sentences.
“As for Dominique Pelicot, I am satisfied with the verdict,” Pelicot’s son David, told the broadcaster BFMTV. But he said he, his sister Caroline and younger brother Florian had been “quite surprised” with the sentences given to the other accused, describing them as less than the national average term for rape. “I am a bit more disappointed concerning what the other accused were given,” he said.
The criticism was echoed across France, by women’s groups, politicians and the supporters of Gisèle Pelicot who had gathered outside the courtroom on Thursday chanting “shame on justice”.
The judges convicted all of the accused men in the mass trial, who ranged in age 26 to 74. Forty-seven were convicted of rape, two of attempted rape and two of sexual assault, and they were handed sentences that ranged from three to 15 years. Several of them had some years suspended.
All of the men were given 10 days from the sentencing to appeal. On Friday, French media reported that the lawyer for Redouan El Farihi, 55, and Ahmed Tbarik, 54, had lodged appeals after they were each found guilty of the rape of Gisèle Pelicot and sentenced to eight years in prison. Both men had insisted throughout the trial that they were not guilty.
After the court’s decision was announced on Thursday, Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, said she would consider an appeal.
After a trial that stretched for more than three months, there remain many unanswered questions about the full extent of Dominique Pelicot’s actions, such as whether he also assaulted Caroline, David said. He said his son had filed a complaint against his grandfather for groping, which could result in another trial if admitted by prosecutors.
David said his father would “take his secrets to his grave”.
The videos kept by Dominique Pelicot suggested that more than 80 men were involved, though police were only able to identify and charge 50 of them, hinting that more than two dozen suspects remain at large.
The location of one of the men convicted on Thursday, Hassan Ouamou, remains unknown: he was tried in absentia amid an outstanding international warrant for his arrest, and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Questions are now swirling over whether Pelicot could have been a serial offender for decades. He faces a further investigation for the rape and murder of an estate agent in Paris in 1991 and an attempted rape in 1999, after investigators in Nanterre, outside Paris, reopened two cold cases. Pelicot has denied any involvement.
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Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In France, the France Victimes network can be contacted on 116 006. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html