Pelicot trial: ‘There’s no such thing as ordinary, accidental, involuntary rape’
Prosecutors in France’s mass rape trial denounced the “casualness” of defendants who claimed their rape of Gisèle Pelicot was unintentional as they wrapped up their case on Wednesday, requesting lengthy jail terms and calls for a wider societal reckoning with the scourge of sex abuse and rape.
As she wound up her marathon closing speech, a painstaking summary of the decade-long horror inflicted on Gisèle Pelicot, the public prosecutor paused to reflect on the wider significance of the drama unfolding in Avignon.
For three consecutive days, Laure Chabaud had laid out the verdicts and punishments sought for dozens of men accused of raping Pelicot while she was drugged and rendered unconscious by her husband Dominique, her partner of 50 years, whom she has since divorced.
Chabaud and her fellow prosecutor called for a maximum 20-year prison sentence for the ex-husband, who has admitted enlisting dozens of strangers online to rape his sedated wife. They also sought jail terms of between 10 and 18 years for 49 co-defendants, and a four-year sentence for the last of the accused.
Such a verdict would “deliver a message of hope to all victims of sexual violence”, Chabaud told the court in southern France on Wednesday as she sought to draw lessons from the most notorious rape trial in modern French history.
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