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Man Sentenced To 20 Years Imprisonment For Raping His Wife With 50 Of His Friends
Dominique Pelicot has been found guilty in a mass rape trial that stunned France. He was handed a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for repeatedly raping, and enlisting strangers to abuse his then-wife Gisèle Pelicot over the course of a decade.
Fifty other men were also found guilty of taking part in abuse, but many have been handed shorter sentences than those asked for by prosecutors. Several walked free having already served prison time.
Gisèle Pelicot waived her anonymity in an effort to help other women and force a change in society. After the sentencing, she said “never regretted” that decision, having previously said she wanted to make the horrors of her case known to give other people affected by sexual violence the courage to speak up
We’re wrapping up our live coverage of the sentencing of Gisèle Pelicot’s abusers for the day.
On Thursday, Dominique Pelicot was found guilty of recruiting dozens of men online to rape his wife at their family home in the southern French village of Mazan. Forty-nine of those men were found guilty of rape in the Avignon court today. Two were found guilty of sexual assault. Some of those charged were also found guilty of having child abuse material.
The maximum number of years prosecutors had sought for all the men to spend in prison was 652. The total number of sentences is significantly less, at 441 years.
Over 20 men accused of abusing Gisèle Pelicot have still not been caught by police.
A leading human rights lawyer has said she was “surprised by the leniency” of many of the sentences handed out to Gisèle Pelicot’s rapists, but explained why they may have been shorter than prosecutors had sought.
A CNN count found that the judge handed out a total of 441 years in prison to the 51 men sentenced – far off the total of 652 years asked for by prosecutors.
Catherine Le Magueresse, president of the European Association Against Violence Toward Women, told CNN that the judge may have given more lenient sentences to avoid the convicted men launching an appeal.
The strategy of the magistrate may have been to discourage an appeal, and they on purpose gave small sentences in a way that those accused – and now condemned – men will not make an appeal against this decision.”
Earlier, a source close to the case also told CNN that judges had handed down varying sentences to limit the number of appeals lodged.
Le Magueresse said an appeal would “be horrifying” for Pelicot. “We know how tough it was for her to go through those weeks of the trial,” she said.
Whereas the trial that just concluded was heard by a panel of judges, a new trial would require a public jury, Le Magueresse said.
However, Le Magueresse added that the prosecutors can also launch an appeal of their own if they feel the sentences were too lax. Both sides have 10 days to decide whether to lodge an appeal.
CNN
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