Pelicot mass raping process: 51 blame and doubts about justice

Pelicot mass raping process: 51 blame and doubts about justice

In France, a terrifying, monthly process due to massive rapes and drug abuse ended on Thursday, in which Dominique Pelicot and 50 other men were creed because of the rape or sexual harassment of his former wife Gisèle Pelicot.

The judgment and the punishments

The 72-year-old Dominique Pelicot, who called for numerous strangers to rape his wife Gisèle during her unconsciousness, received the maximum punishment of 20 years for serious rape. Forty -eight other men were convicted of severe rape, while two were found guilty of sexual harassment.

a public process for more visibility

The process that shakes all of France has suggested that the country to question the widespread misogyny and systematic sexual assault. Gisèle Pelicot made the remarkable decision to lift her anonymity and make the process public - an action that many describe as heroic. For months, Gisèle stood out to her perpetrators in the courtroom and let the world experience the horrors that she had suffered over a decade.

solidarity with victims of sexual violence

After the verdict was pronounced, Gisèle emphasized her solidarity with other surviving sexual attacks in front of the courthouse in Avignon. "I think of all the unknown victims of stories that often take place in the shade. I want you to know that we are all fighting the same fight," she said. She also made it clear that she had never "regretted" her decision to speak publicly, and the messages of supporters would have given her the necessary "strength".

inappropriate judgments and their effects

Although Dominique Pelicot received the maximum punishment for serious rape, others who had visited the Pelicot house several times, such as Romain V and Charly A., were punished of 15 and 13 years. Many of the other rapists received shorter penalties than the public prosecutor expected, including some who got away with a suspended sentence. There were faces of the horror in the courtroom when Jacques C. received a five -year suspended sentence.

The reactions to the judgments

nedeljka Macan, a resident of Mazan, the small town where the acts took place, described the judgments as an "insult". A source from the process environment reported that the judges intentionally imposed different punishments in order to illustrate the difference in the severity of the crimes. It was hoped to limit the number of appeals lodged by awarding varying punishments.

Investigations and cruel deeds

Pelicot's lawyer, Beatrice Zavarro, told journalists that their team tested whether an appeal would be lodged. She expressed that her client had been made a scapegoat of the process. But evidence shows how central Pelicot was in organizing the crimes. He recruited men about the now no longer existent coco.fr "dating website" and used a chat room to exchange pictures of an unconscious gisèle before meeting with his complications.

The voice of the survivors

Gisèle indicated that she was completely unsuspecting from her husband's actions. Over time, the frequent sedations and sexual assault began to heavily strain on their body. Her husband accompanied her to several visits to the doctor, in which she complained about memory loss and pelvic pain.

a process that calls for changes

only after Dominique was arrested in a supermarket in September 2020 because he filmed female customers under the skirts, his crimes came to light. For this act he received an eight -month suspended sentence. During the investigation, police officers confiscated his hard drive, his laptop and his cell phones and found hundreds of pictures and videos by Gisèle, which was raped, which opened one of the worst sexual crimes in modern French history.

final thoughts on a crop mass

Although the process is now complete, the judgment leaves many angered ones, including the children of Dominique and Gisèle Pelicot. They criticize that the judgments do not adequately recognize and underline the weight of the crimes of rapists how insufficiently France reacts to sexual violence. Olympees desanges, a women's rights activist, told CNN: "As a woman and feminist, I feel disappointed and humiliated by these judgments." Sarah McGrath, CEO of Women for Women France, explained that France was known for his "very tasteful judgments". "We have a really problematic judicial system when it comes to treating cases of this kind," she added, pointing out that only 10 % of the rape victims report the crime at all and lead only 1 to 4 % to a conviction.

The reporting of CNN on this topic was supported by Caroline Baum, Antoinette Radford and Kathy Rose O’Brien.