PARIS – The ex-husband of Gisèle Pelicot won't appeal his 20-year prison sentence for drugging and raping her and allowing dozens of other men to rape her while she was unconscious, in a case that revolted France, his lawyer said Monday.
Dominique Pelicot wants to spare his ex-wife a “new ordeal” of another trial, lawyer Béatrice Zavarro said in an interview with broadcaster France Info.
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She said 17 of the 50 other men also found guilty this month have decided to appeal their sentences after a more than three-month trial that turned 72-year-old Gisèle Pelicot into an icon against sexual violence.
The court in the southern French city of Avignon handed down sentences ranging from three to 15 years' imprisonment for the 50 men found guilty of rape, attempted rape and sexual assault on Gisèle Pelicot over nearly a decade of shocking abuse orchestrated by her then-husband and inflicted on her unwittingly.
The court found Dominique Pelicot guilty of rape and all other charges against him and sentenced him to 20 years in prison, the maximum possible. At age 72, he could spend the rest of his life behind bars. He won’t be eligible to request early release until he’s served at least two-thirds of the sentence.
Zavarro, his lawyer, said: “He believes that the judicial page should be turned and that this chapter should be considered closed."
The appeals trial is expected to be in the last third of 2025, the appeals court in the southern city of Nimes said in a statement. It confirmed that 17 of those found guilty filed appeals ahead of a Monday night deadline.
The trial spurred a national reckoning about the blight of rape culture. Dominique Pelicot laced his wife's food and drink with tranquilizers to render her unconscious. He then invited strangers he met online to take part in sordid rape and abuse fantasies that he acted out with them and filmed in the couple’s retirement home in the small Provence town of Mazan and elsewhere.
Gisèle Pelicot’s courage during the bruising trial and her appalling ordeal, inflicted on the retired power company worker in what she had thought was a loving marriage, galvanized campaigners and triggered calls for tougher measures to stamp out rape culture.
She waived her right to anonymity as a survivor of sexual abuse and successfully pushed for the hearings and evidence — including her ex-husband’s homemade videos — to be heard in open court, insisting that shame should fall on her abusers, not her.