Pelicot children, women's rights groups slam 'too lenient' sentences for co-defendants

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00:00Outside the gates of the criminal court in Avignon, supporters chanted the words shame

00:06on justice as sentences were handed out in the Pellicourt trial.

00:11The atmosphere was tense as a lawyer for one of the condemned men in the mass rape trial

00:15taunted the crowd and called the activist knitters and hysterical.

00:20My client is free, my client is free.

00:23He boasted that his client was one of the six men walking out freely, having only been

00:28held in provisional detention.

00:31The scene added salt to the wound for many feminist activists who said they felt humiliated

00:35by the sentences.

00:39What bothers me is the notion of different penalties, while they're all the same offence

00:43under the penal code, that's rape.

00:45And for rape our penal code says 15 years.

00:48How is it that certain men who we recognise have committed rape can walk free after three

00:52years?

00:56For activists and observers, the Pellicourt trial has highlighted the need to update French

01:01law.

01:02In the absence of consent as a legal criterion in France, defence lawyers were able to argue

01:07that the aggressors thought they were taking part in a consensual fantasy.

01:15If we had in our French criminal law the obligation for the person who initiates sexual contact

01:20to ensure they have consent free of any coercion, the accused would not even have been able

01:26to plead a belief in consent since Mrs Pellicourt never said yes.

01:33The country's criminal code currently defines rape as a sexual act committed by violence,

01:38coercion, threat or surprise, but does not mention whether or not consent is necessary.

01:45France was one of a dozen countries that opposed the EU's recent effort to establish a shared

01:50definition of rape based on the notion of affirmative consent, namely the idea that

01:56only yes means yes.

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