Pelicot rape trial: all 50 men charged with Dominique Pelicot found guilty of rape and sexual assault of Gisèle Pelicot – live updates | Gisèle Pelicot rape case

Manon Aubry, a member of the European Parliament and a leading figure in the far-left party Unbowed France (LFI), has said that the trial in Mazan “will forever embody the fight against rape culture.”

Taking to social media, she added:

A trial for posterity, one that should make us think about the attackers, the treatment of the victims and the concept of consent, in a country where the overwhelming majority of victims never get justice. So that shame can definitely change sides! Thank you Gisèle.”

The President of the French National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, has written on social media after the verdicts:

“Thank you for your courage, Gisèle Pelicot,” he wrote. “Through you, the voices of so many victims are heard today, the shame changes sides, the taboo has been broken. The world is no longer the same, thanks to you.”

A few photos from the Avignon courtroom, taken before the judges announced that all 51 defendants had been found guilty:

The panel of judges has found all 51 defendants in France’s mass rape trial guilty after a three-month trial that sent shockwaves around the world.

At the center of the case was Dominique Pelicot, who admitted to drugging his then-wife, Gisèle Pelicot, for nearly a decade, offering her unconscious body for sex to dozens of strangers he had met online and filming the abuse.

The judges found him guilty on charges that included aggravated rape and sentenced him to a maximum of 20 years in prison.

As news of his sentence spread, cheers rang out outside the courtroom, where supporters of Gisèle and women’s rights campaigners have gathered.

The French court also found 46 of the other defendants guilty of rape, two guilty of attempted rape and two guilty of sexual assault.

All 51 men in court found guilty

Those charged included a man who did not rape Gisèle Pelicot but repeatedly abused his own wife with the help of Dominique Pelicot.

BFMTV reports that the panel of five judges also found this man guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced him to 12 years in prison.

20 of the men charged have so far been found guilty

Dominique Pelicot sentenced to 20 years in prison

Fifty men besides Dominique Pelicot have been charged, including one who did not rape Gisele Pelicot but repeatedly abused his own wife with Dominique Pelicot’s help.

More than 20 other suspects are still at large, as investigators had failed to identify them before the start of the mass trial.

The prosecution has demanded 10 to 18 years in prison against the 49 defendants, who are also charged with aggravated rape. One of these accused is on the run and is being tried in absentia.

Another defendant – facing the lesser charge of groping – faces up to four years in prison.

Reuters reports that the court has found at least 20 defendants guilty of rape.

The German daily, Die Tageszeitung, has paid tribute to Gisèle Pelicot on its front page today, accompanied by a picture of her with the word “Merci”.

In the lawsuit, some 165 media outlets – including 76 foreign ones – reportedly sought accreditation.

French television cameras outside the Avignon courtroom captured the cheers that erupted when those gathered there – many of them supporters of Gisèle Pelicot and feminist campaigners – learned that Dominique Pelicot had been found guilty of aggravated rape of Gisèle Pelicot.

Dominique Pelicot convicted of aggravated rape