More than 50 men have been found guilty in one way or another for the rape or sexual assault of one French woman, Gisele Pelicot, 72, over a decade from 2011 to 2020.
The rapes were orchestrated by Pelicot’s ex-husband, Dominique Pelicot, 72, who has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping his wife as well as drugging her and inviting men to their home in France to rape her.
A panel of five judges, who voted by secret ballot, handed Pelicot a 20-year prison sentence on Thursday, the longest sentence possible for this crime according to French law.
He will not be eligible for parole until he has served two-thirds of his sentence. Pelicot is entitled to appeal the sentence within 10 days of the verdict, but his lawyers did not indicate whether he plans to do this.
Here is what we know about one of the worst sexual abuse cases to be tried in modern French history:
Who has been found guilty of rape, and who hasn’t?
In one way or another, all 51 defendants in the case have been found guilty of harming Pelicot.
Some 47 of the defendants were found guilty of rape. Two men were found guilty of attempted rape and two were found guilty of sexual assault. They were identified from videos of the assaults on Gisele Pelicot that her husband had filmed.
Men who featured in 20 additional videos of assaults, which were shown in court, have not been identified and are still at large. In total, police believe Gisele Pelicot was assaulted by 72 men.
What happened in the Gisele Pelicot case?
Gisele lived with her husband in the village of Mazan, Provence, in southeastern France, where they had retired.
Pelicot’s husband was a retired electrician. The Pelicots, who are now divorced, have three children: Caroline, David and Florian.
From 2011 to 2020, Dominique Pelicot drugged his wife by mixing sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication Temesta, which can have a sedative effect, into her food.
He would then recruit men on a chat website called Coco, which was shut down this summer, to rape his wife while she was unconscious. He recorded the assaults on video.
Gisele Pelicot was unaware that this was happening and said she believed that she and her husband had a loving relationship.
However, for years, she experienced lapses in memory, weight loss and hair loss, fearing she was developing a serious illness such as Alzheimer’s – something her husband allowed her to continue believing.
How did Gisele find out what had happened to her?
In November 2020, Pelicot was caught filming up multiple women’s skirts at a French supermarket.
Following his arrest and 100-euro ($104) fine, the police searched his computer and discovered a folder named “Abuses” in which they found the pictures and videos of abuse.
Pelicot pleaded guilty to rape during the trial, which began on September 2 this year.
‘Mr Everyman’: Who are the co-defendants?
The men were aged between 26 to 74 and worked in professions ranging from truck driver to prison guard to nurse.
Because the rapists and abusers are from all walks of life, they were dubbed “Monsieur Tout-le-Monde” or “Mr Everyman”.
A local journalist, a banker, an IT worker and carpenters were also among the men. Some of them had wives and children.
The co-defendants included:
- Jean-Pierre Marechal, 63, a worker in a garden store. He is the only co-defendant who is not accused of raping Gisele. Instead, he drugged and raped his own wife for five years, inviting Pelicot to do the same. He pleaded guilty: “I was a rapist, but I’m not any more.” He was sentenced to 12 years in prison for attempted and aggravated rape.
- Lionel Rodriguez, 44, a supermarket worker and father of three. He was sentenced to eight years in prison.
- Jacques Cubeau, 73, a retired firefighter and father of two. He told the court he believed what he was participating in was consensual. He was sentenced to five years.
- Cyrille Delville, 54, a construction worker who admitted to rape. He was sentenced to eight years.
- Andy Rodriguez, 37, an unemployed alcoholic. He was found guilty and sentenced to six years.
- Joan Kawai, 27, a soldier. It was revealed in the trial that he missed the birth of his daughter because he was assaulting Gisele Pelicot. He was found guilty of rape and sentenced to 10 years.
- Hugues Malago, 39, a tiler who denied attempting to rape Gisele. He was found guilty of attempted rape and sentenced to five years.
- Husamettin Dogan, 43, a construction worker who was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to nine years.
- Mathieu Dartus, 53, a baker who said he had taken the drug MDMA the night he visited the Pelicots. He was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to seven years.
- Fabien Sotto, 39, a homeless father of four who admitted to rape. He was found guilty and sentenced to 11 years.
- Jean Tirano, 52, a roof mechanic who claimed he was also drugged by Pelicot. He was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to eight years.
- Simoné Mekenes, 43, the next-door neighbour of the Pelicots and the only man in the videos Gisele recognised. He was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to nine years.
- Redouan El Farihi, 55, a nurse who visited the Pelicots’ home when his wife was away in Morocco. He claimed Pelicot told him that Gisele was pretending to be asleep. He was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to eight years.
- Thierry Postat, 61, also faced charges of owning more than 1,000 pieces of child pornography and zoophilic images. He was sentenced to 12 years and banned from working with children for life.
- Jerome Vilela, 46, admitted to knowing that Gisele had been drugged. He was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to 13 years.
- Adrien Longeron, 34, denied raping Gisele, telling the court that “as long as the husband was present, there was no rape”. He was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to six years.
- Thierry Parisis, 54, was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to eight years.
- Vincent Coullet, 43, a carpenter. He was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to 10 years.
- Didier Sambuchi, 67, a retired truck driver. He was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to five years.
- Patrick Aron, 60, who was unemployed. He was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to six years.
- Jean-Marc Leloup, 74, a retired truck driver. He was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to six years.
- Karim Sebaoui, 40, an IT worker. He was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to 10 years.
- Mohamed Rafaa, 70, a former DJ and club manager. He was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to eight years.
- Dominique Davies, 45, a truck driver. He was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to 13 years.
- Cyprien Culieras, 44, a forklift operator who has eight prior convictions. He was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to six years.
- Mahdi Daoudi, 36, was found guilty of rape and sentenced to eight years.
- Cyril Beaubis, 47, was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to nine years.
- Ahmed Tbarik, 54, a plumber. He was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to eight years.
- Redouane Azougagh, 40, was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to nine years.
- Patrice Nicolle, 55, an electrician. He was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to eight years.
- Gregory Serviol, 31, a plasterer who had seven prior convictions. He was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to eight years.
- Abdelali Dallal, 47, was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to eight years. However, his sentence was suspended due to medical issues, and he will be placed in a special prison.
- Jean-Luc La, 46, was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to 10 years.
- Florian Rocca, 32, was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to seven years.
- Quentin Hennebert, 34, a former prison guard. He was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to seven years.
- Romain Vandevelde, 63, a pensioner who is HIV-positive and refused to use a condom when raping Gisele Pelicot. He was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to 15 years – the longest sentence among the co-defendants.
- Cendric Venzin, 44, a restaurant manager. He was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to nine years.
- Omar Douiri, 36, a cleaner who was married. He was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to eight years.
- Ludovick Blemeur, 39, a warehouse worker. He was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to seven years.
- Saifeddine Ghabi, 36, a truck driver. He was found guilty of sexual assault but was acquitted of rape and sentenced to three years.
- Hassan Ouamou, 30, has 13 prior convictions and fled France during the investigation. He was tried in absentia, found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to 12 years.
- Paul Grovogui, 31, was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to eight years.
- Cedric Grassot, 50, was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to 12 years.
- Joseph Cocco, 69, was not charged with rape. He was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault and sentenced to three years.
- Nicolas Francois, 42, a freelance journalist. He was found guilty of aggravated rape and owning child abuse imagery. He was sentenced to eight years and banned from working near children.
- Philippe Leleu, 62, was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to five years, two of which were suspended.
- Boris Moulin, 37, was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to eight years.
- Christian Lescole, 57, was found guilty of aggravated rape and owning child abuse imagery, and sentenced to nine years.
- Nizar Hamida, 41, has eight prior convictions and told the court: “I’m not a rapist. Why would I go and rape a 66-year-old woman?” He was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to 10 years.
- Charly Arbo, 30, was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to 13 years.
The prosecutors had asked for the co-defendants to receive between 10 and 18 years in prison, but the sentences were mostly much lower than this.
Are cold cases being reopened as a result of this case?
Yes. Police suspect Pelicot may have been a serial offender responsible for other assaults over a longer period.
Investigators in Nanterre, outside Paris, have now placed Pelicot under formal investigation, and have reopened two cold cases. One is the rape and murder of an estate agent in Paris in 1991; the other is an attempted rape in 1999.