Gisèle Pelicot rape trial latest: Security guard who caught Dominique says he saw ‘fear in his eyes’
Ms Pelicot’s ex-husband Dominique Pelicot admitted to drugging and raping her for almost a decade
The security guard who caught Dominique Pelicot upskirting women at a supermarket, which led to the discovery of his heinous crimes, has recalled the “terror” and “fear” in his eyes.
Thibaut Rey, 38, spotted the serial rapist taking images of three women at the LeClerc shopping centre and confronted him, holding his phone until police arrived to make their arrest.
“Pelicot didn’t resist. He froze with terror. I saw the fear in his eyes,” he said.
French President Emmanuel Macron has praised Pelicot’s wife and mass rape victim Gisèle for her dignity and courage which has “moved and inspired France and around the world”.
It comes as her children condemn the “low” sentences in France’s most shocking rape case which saw 51 men convicted for a total of 428 years.
Ex-husband Dominique Pelicot wept as he was convicted and jailed for the maximum term of 20 years, after he admitted he drugged his wife so he and strangers could abuse her while he filmed it.
‘Mr Everyman’: Who are the 51 men who sexually abused Gisèle Pelicot?
Every word of Gisele Pelicot’s statement outside courtroom where 51 men were sentenced for abusing her- As her husband is jailed for his heinous crimes, we must ask: how many more Gisèle Pelicots are there?
Where are all the men horrified by Gisele Pelicot’s rape trial?
Jess Phillips MP says Gisèle Pelicot to ‘change the world'
Gisèle Pelicot will change the world, the UK’s minister for stopping violence against women and girls has said.
Speaking to The Mirror, Jess Phillips said the 72-year-old deserved “every award” after bravely waiving her anonymity to expose her husband’s crimes.
“The Gisèle Pelicot court case has made the world stand still with horror and respect for her,” she said.
“I think that Gisèle Pelicot deserves every award that could possibly ever be given to her, not because of just her bravery, but because I think her story is going to change the world.”
“Absolutely we will take learnings from the Gisèle Pelicot case. I imagine that’s the same around the world.”
Youngest man to rape Giséle Pelicot committed the horrific crime on the day his daughter was born
The youngest man to rape Giséle Pelicot after her predator ex-husband drugged her did so on the day his first daughter was born.
Joan Kawai, who has been jailed for 10 years, was just 23 when he visited Ms Pelicot’s family home in southern France to abuse her five years ago.
The former French conscript was among 47 men, including Ms Pelicot’s former husband Dominique Pelicot, convicted of rape at a packed French courthouse on Thursday.
Youngest man to rape Giséle Pelicot committed the crime on day his daughter was born
‘How much dignity’ - Spanish prime minister
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez has commended the “dignity” of Gisèle Pelicot.
“How much dignity. Thank you, Gisèle Pelicot. Let shame change sides,” he said in a post on X.
Watch: Celebration outside French court as guilty verdicts announced in Gisele Pelicot mass rape case
Gisèle Pelicot was cheered as she left with her family and flanked by police
Supporters shouted, “Thank you Gisèle” and “Bravo Gisele” as she exited the court. Others applauded and ululated.
After Pelicot was driven away, supporters gathered in a circle and sang songs including the anthem of the women’s liberation movement in the early 1970s.
Coco: The anonymous chat site dubbed the ‘den of predators’ that enabled the mass rape of Gisèle Pelicot
It was a free chat site with a simple interface allowing users to communicate anonymously.
But the shut-down Coco forum turned into a “den of predators” with it now emerging it was used by Dominque Pelicot to organise the horrifying mass rape of his ex-wife Gisèle.
Pelicot, who was jailed for 20 years on Thursday, co-ordinated his abuse by finding many of the men who raped his wife on the illicit chat site, and then through the platform was able to conceal his crimes.
Inside a packed Vaucluse criminal courtroom in Avignon, 47 men, including Pelicot, were convicted of rape. Two others were found guilty of attempted rape, and another two guilty of sexual assault.
Alexander Butler reports:
Coco: The chat site that enabled the mass rape of Gisèle Pelicot
'Consent' missing from French rape law, says legal expert after Pelicot verdict
The Pelicot mass rape trial which shook France and beyond is challenging the limits of existing legislation, a French legal expert said.
“I was relieved to see that all the accused had been convicted and, secondly, surprised by certain decisions and by the lack of severity (...) of certain decisions,” said Catherine Le Magueresse, a legal expert whose work looks at feminist criticism of law and sexual violence.
“Today the average sentence for rape is around 11 years and a few months, so that means that we are below the average sentence handed down, even though we have been constantly told that this was an extraordinary trial and that the way in which the accused had raped was particularly despicable.”
Le Magueresse said that if French rape law had included the principle of consent, none of the co-accused would have received lighter sentences, a fact she said she found extremely worrying.
The names and sentences of all 51 men found guilty in the Gisèle Pelicot trial
The sentences of the 51 men charged with rape and other offences related to the campaign of abuse against Gisèle Pelicot, orchestrated by her ex-husband Dominque Pelicot, are being revealed on Thursday.
Mr Pelicot has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for drugging his ex-wife, raping her, and inviting men to abuse her while unconscious for nearly a decade. He has also been found guilty of taking indecent images of his daughter and daughters-in-law.
While the 72-year-old had admitted the charges against him, most of the 50 other men on trial had denied charges of rape. They largely reside within the towns and villages around the southern French town of Mazan, where the Pelicots lived during their marriage.
Most have now been found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to time in prison. Here’s a full list of the defendants and their convictions:
Albert Toth reports:
The names and sentences of all 51 men found guilty in the Gisèle Pelicot trial
Gisèle Pelicot rape trial: The sentences for ex-husband and 51 defendants
The chain of events that led to Dominique Pelicot’s horrific crimes being uncovered
Gisèle Pelicot was in court to look 51 of her abusers in the eye and see them convicted for a total of 428 years.
She watched her former husband of 50 years Dominique Pelicot be found guilty on Thursday and sentenced to 20 years in prison after drugging and raping her for a decade, and inviting others to join in the attack.
But without her courage and the intervention of a supermarket security guard, the horrors of the trial which has shaped France’s legal system and shocked the nation to its core may never have come to light.
