12/19/2024

Judges Convict 51 in Rape Trial That Shocked the World

The trial occurred in Avignon, France

Judges on Thursday convicted a Frenchman of aggravated rape and other charges, after the 72-year-old admitted to repeatedly drugging his wife and recruiting dozens of other men to rape her over almost a decade.

A court in Avignon, southern France, sentenced Dominique Pelicot to 20 years in prison, the maximum allowed under French law, after finding him guilty of all charges. Prosecutors said he regularly found men online to abuse his wife, 72-year-old Gisèle Pelicot, after he had sedated her.

The three-month trial — held in open court at the request of Gisèle Pelicot, who said she wanted the world to know what had happened to her — has drawn horror and attention internationally, triggered a reckoning about sexual violence in France and turned the grandmother into a feminist hero.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Washington Post.