Dominique Pelicot will not appeal against his conviction for drugging and raping his wife and inviting strangers to rape her, his lawyer has said.
Béatrice Zavarro said the former electrician, 72, who was jailed for the maximum 20 years this month, wished to spare his now ex-wife, Gisèle Pelicot, a new ordeal but admitted there was also the risk a new trial in front of a public jury could mean a longer prison sentence.
Pelicot and the 50 others who were all found guilty of rape or sexual assault after a three-and-a-half-month trial have until midnight on Monday to lodge an appeal. At least 17 are believed to have decided to contest their conviction and more may follow.
Gisèle Pelicot, 72, a retired logistics manager, believes she may have been raped more than 200 times by her husband and other men between 2011 and 2020, when Dominique Pelicot was finally caught after filming up the skirts of female shoppers in a supermarket near the couple’s home in the Provençal town of Mazan. Detectives subsequently found tens of thousands of videos of the abuse on his phone and a hard drive.
On Monday, Zavarro said Dominique Pelicot had decided not to appeal against his conviction because to do so would “force Gisèle into a new ordeal and new confrontations, which [he] rejects”.
Appealing against the guilty judgment, when Pelicot admitted the charges, would involve “running an unnecessary risk”, she added, as the accusations could be made more serious in the appeal court, where the case would be held in front of a public jury, potentially leading to a longer prison term.
“It is time to put an end to this judicially,” Zavarro said on Monday.
The marathon rape trial in Avignon was heard by a panel of five professional magistrates. The appeal court, which sits in the southern city of Nimes, will require a new full trial within the next year.
Gisèle Pelicot is not required to attend the appeal hearing but her lawyer, Stéphane Babonneau, indicated she was ready to do so. “She has told us she will be there. Maybe not every day but she says she will go,” he said.
She became an international feminist figurehead after insisting the trial be held in open court and the videos of her abuse shown in order that “shame changes sides”.
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The trial has caused much soul-searcing in France and calls to tighten French rape laws, including introducing the concept of “consent”, which is absent. The trial also threw a spotlight on attitudes towards the rape and sexual abuse of women in France, where 94% of reported rape cases are dropped without any action.
“From Gisèle Pelicot’s point of view, there is no sentence that will give her back what she has lost,” Babonneau said. “All Gisèle Pelicot wanted is to have the accused convicted for what they did to her. As for the personal sentences, she respects the decision of the court and finds no solace in them.”
