Prosecutors demand 20-year jail sentence for Dominique Pelicot

French prosecutors have demanded a 20-year jail sentence for Dominique Pelicot, who’s accused of drugging his former spouse Gisèle for a decade and welcoming 50 males recruited on-line to rape her.

Mr Pelicot, who has admitted to the fees, also needs to endure medical therapy for 10 years, prosecutors mentioned.

Twenty years – the utmost sentence for rape below French legislation – “is each rather a lot… and too little given the gravity of the acts that had been dedicated and repeated,” mentioned prosecutor Laure Chabaud.

Referring to an evaluation of Mr Pelicot made by a psychiatrist earlier within the trial, Ms Chabaud mentioned that the defendant introduced “a number of sexual deviances”.

Verdicts and sentences are anticipated subsequent month.

“He sought pleasure by way of a want to submit, humiliate and debase his spouse – the particular person he claimed to cherish essentially the most on the earth,” Ms Chabaud informed the courtroom, saying that Mr Pelicot, 72, must be re-examined on the finish of his sentence earlier than being launched.

One other prosecutor, Jean-François Mayet, mentioned the trial had shaken up society and that what’s at stake “was not a conviction or an acquittal” however “to essentially change the relations between women and men”.

Mr Mayet paid tribute to the “braveness and dignity” of Gisèle Pelicot, who was in courtroom as she has been most days for the reason that trial started in September.

Her choice to waive anonymity and have an open trial has led to an enormous quantity of curiosity within the case, which has in flip sparked a nationwide dialog on rape tradition, consent and chemical submission – drugging somebody for the needs of coercion or assault.

On Monday morning posters studying “20 years for everybody” had appeared on the partitions across the Avignon courthouse the place the trial is going down.

Nonetheless, it’s unlikely the 50 defendants on this extraordinary case will likely be handed sentences this lengthy.

The longest jail time period requested by prosecutors at this time – excluding the 20-year demand made for Mr Pelicot – was for Jean-Pierre Marechal, a co-defendant who shouldn’t be accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot, however who has admitted to drugging and raping his personal ex-wife on Mr Pelicot’s recommendation and instruction.

He’s going through 17 years in jail.

Prosecutors additionally demanded 10 years for a lot of the different 19 defendants whose circumstances had been examined at this time.

Nearly all of the 50 accused deny the fees of rape, arguing that they can’t be responsible as a result of they didn’t realise Ms Pelicot was unconscious after they had been invited to the household’s dwelling by her husband, and subsequently didn’t “know” they had been raping her.

However prosecutor Ms Chabaud mentioned that “in 2024 we are able to now not preserve that as a result of she did not say something, she consented.”

She added that neither the circumstances nor the behaviour of Gisèle Pelicot “might have led these males to imagine that she agreed to be subjected to those sexual acts in her torpid state.”

In an deal with to mark the Worldwide Day for the Elimination of Violence Towards Girls, Prime Minister Michel Barnier mentioned this trial was a watershed second for the nation’s efforts to fight violence in opposition to girls.

“I am satisfied that the Mazan trial will mark a earlier than and after,” he mentioned.

Mazan is the title of the village the place the Pelicots lived and the place Dominque Pelicot filmed the native males he had contacted on-line.

The prime minister additionally introduced a collection of presidency measures to fight violence in opposition to girls, together with funding for pharmacies to dispense dwelling drug take a look at kits below a pilot scheme to combat chemical submission.

Earlier on Monday, Equality Minister Salima Saa mentioned the federal government was “absolutely mobilised” and introduced the enlargement of a system which permits victims of sexual violence to file complaints in hospitals and never simply police stations.

The system is at the moment utilized in 236 hospitals and will likely be prolonged to 377 by the tip of subsequent 12 months.

A brand new consciousness marketing campaign was additionally introduced.

The trial, which opened in early September, is now in its closing stretch.

Legal professionals for the 50 defendants will make their closing arguments over the following three weeks, and a verdict is anticipated by 20 December.