“It’s not for us to have shame – it’s for them…I want all women who have been raped to say: Madame Pelicot did it, I can too. I don’t want them to be ashamed any longer.”

Gisele Pelicot’s words from her testimony during the months-long mass rape trial were vindicated by the conviction and sentencing of Dominique Pelicot and 50 other men in December 2024.

Gisele Pelicot’s ex-husband was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to 20 years in prison by a court in Avignon, France. Over the course of nearly a decade, he had drugged her, raped her and invited dozens of other men to abuse her. The other 50 men were also found guilty of at least one charge each and sentenced to between three and 15 years in jail. There was some disappointment that these prison terms were shorter than those requested by the prosecution. Meanwhile, 17 of these men are now appealing their convictions.

The case has garnered international attention over the past few months. The horrifying nature of the crimes has exposed not only individual culpability but the systemic issues in prosecuting these crimes. The trial marks a turning point in confronting social, cultural and legal attitudes towards sexual violence both in France and internationally.

Who is Gisele Pelicot?

The 72-year-old woman is at the centre of the largest rape trial in French history. In 2020, her husband, Dominique, was arrested for upskirting. Police seized his computer equipment and discovered a library of over 20,000 images and videos. Of those videos, many documented the abuse and rape of Pelicot by a number of different men, after her husband had drugged her with tranquilisers. The investigators counted 72 individuals in total but were unable to identify them all. The abuse had lasted nearly a decade from 2011-2020.

Pelicot came to the public’s attention after she waived the right to anonymity for the trial. She said of this decision:

“I wanted… to ensure that society could see what was happening. I never have regretted this decision. I have now faith in our capacity to collectively take hold of a future in which everybody… can live together in harmony, respect, and mutual understanding.”

Her decision is a rare choice for many survivors of sexual assault and she has been lauded for her courage worldwide. Every day, since the start of the trial in September 2024, supporters have lined up outside the Avignon court as Pelicot walks past in a show of solidarity. She has repeatedly called for there to be a change in attitude towards rape and consent.

The societal and legal context

While some of the accused, including Dominique Pelicot himself, have plead guilty, many did not. Some stated that Dominique Pelicot’s consent extended to his wife. They claimed that they were manipulated, that they hadn’t intended to rape or that they hadn’t actually committed rape.

Currently, the crime of rape is defined in French law as “any act of sexual penetration of any kind whatsoever, or any oral-genital act committed … by violence, coercion, threat or surprise.” Consent is not a factor that is explicitly considered, despite already existing in the laws of Sweden, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and many more European countries.

There have been moves to criminalise rape based on lack of consent at the EU level and President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen highlighted the issue in September 2023, during her State of the Union address by saying: “No, means no. There can be no true equality without freedom from violence.” However, attempts to codify consent were unsuccessful because states, including France, opposed an EU-wide definition.

According to a recent poll, “9 out of 10 French people want  the President of the Republic to  support a European definition of rape based on consent.” President Emmanuel Macron said in March that he would be in favour of adding consent to French rape laws. In September, new Justice Minister Didier Migaud echoed that sentiment. One of the public prosecutors in the Pelicot trial, Laure Chabaud, said that “it is not possible any more, in 2024, to consider that, because she hasn’t said anything, [a woman] is consenting.”

As well as consent, the trial has also highlighted the issue of rape by drugging, known in France as “chemical submission.” Since the start of the Pelicot trial, the government has announced reforms in how these cases are dealt with, from providing test kits, to offering better emergency assistance and the ability to file complaints at more hospitals with an emergency or gynaecology department. Dr Leila Chaouachi, a chemist and expert at the Paris Addiction Monitoring Centre, said to the BBC: “It needs to become a real major public health issue that everyone takes seriously, and which forces the authorities to urgently address these issues to improve care for victims.”

The trial has also sparked wider conversations in France around attitudes towards rape and sexual assault. In September, a group of 200 prominent men in France signed a “Roadmap Against Male Domination.” In that letter, they wrote:

[S]even years after the start of #MeToo, where are we? What have we learned? How have we positioned ourselves? Where are we when our friends, colleagues, brothers behave or make sexist comments? Where are we when women are attacked? No doubt busy questioning the credibility of the victim, while asserting that ‘not all men.’

The trial itself demonstrated some of these cultural attitudes. Guillaume de Palma, lawyer for several of the defendants said “there is rape, and then there’s rape,” which, Sky News asserted, was “implying a man unaware he was committing rape could not be judged for the crime.” Pelicot replied from the stand “rape is rape.”

Mayor Louis Bonnet of Mazan, the town where the crimes took place, initially downplayed the rapes, saying “I am minimising it, because I think it could have been much worse…It will be hard, but no one died.” He later apologised for the comments.

The lasting impact

While the trial may have ended, the words, bravery and dignity of Gisele Pelicot will resonate beyond this singular moment and beyond France. It has highlighted cultural, structural and legal failings that allow such crimes to persist and keep victims silent and ashamed. The lines of women outside court every day attest to the need for better legal protections but also a shift in cultural attitudes.  In early January, an opinion poll by the Odoxa Institute named Pelicot as France’s Personality of the Year, stating that her “personality (and) her dignity but also the horror to which she was subjected have made an impact upon French people.” In her call to reject shame and to cast it upon the wrongdoer, Gisele Pelicot has become a rallying cry for greater accountability.

As Pelicot said: “I hear lots of women, and men, who say, ‘You’re very brave’. I say it’s not bravery, it’s will and determination to change society. This is not just my battle, but that of all rape victims.”