'Verdict shakes French society to its core: Shifting judicial focus on actions of perpetrators'

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00:00She's the face of courage, that's how politicians and public figures around the world are describing

00:11Gisèle Pellicourt after her ex-husband was sentenced to 20 years in prison for drugging

00:16her, raping her and inviting dozens of strangers to rape her too. 76 of the men were also handed

00:22jail terms today, ranging from 3 to 8 years for their crimes. All the men, including Dominique

00:28Pellicourt, were found guilty of rape or sexual assault. The sentences cap off what

00:32has been a landmark trial that has sparked a wider debate about rape culture in France

00:38and beyond. Gisèle herself has become a feminist hero. The 72-year-old could have demanded

00:44that the trial be kept behind closed doors, but instead she asked for it to be held in

00:47public in the hopes that it would help other women speak up about their abuse too.

00:53Siobhan Silk has more now on the verdicts delivered today.

00:58The woman who walked into court throughout this trial with her head held high, walked

01:02out after the verdicts the same way. Gisèle Pellicourt, a picture of courage and resilience

01:09after a decade of druggings and brutal rapes at the bidding of her then-husband, then a

01:14gruelling three-and-a-half-month trial under the eyes of the world.

01:20I want to express a most profound gratitude to all those who have supported me throughout

01:25this ordeal. Your stories have moved me deeply and they have given me the strength needed

01:30to return day after day for these long hearings.

01:37On Thursday, the verdicts finally came. Gisèle's ex-husband Dominique Pellicourt was found

01:42guilty and handed the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. His 50 co-accused, 50

01:48strangers whom Pellicourt recruited to rape his then-wife, also all found guilty on charges

01:53of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault. Their sentences ranged from three to 15 years

01:59with some partially suspended, a disappointment to the prosecution who had demanded prison

02:04terms of up to 18 years.

02:07The sentences were reduced and it's a good thing. I continue to think that Dominique

02:11Pellicourt's ultimate crime is to have brought down with him 50 men who were not meant to

02:16find themselves here today.

02:20Gisèle Pellicourt said she respected the court's decision but her supporters are bitterly

02:25disappointed by what they see as light punishments.

02:30It makes a mockery of everyone, a mockery of us and a mockery of sexist and sexual violence.

02:35I don't even have the words. We're completely disillusioned.

02:41Even at this time, Gisèle Pellicourt's thoughts are with other people who may be suffering

02:46in silence.

02:47I think of the victims who have not been recognised, whose stories are often hidden. I want you

02:53to know that we share the same fight.

02:57Her own story might have stayed in the shadows if not for her decision to waive her anonymity

03:02and allow the trial to be held in public.

03:06By opening the doors of this trial on September 2nd, I wanted society to be a witness to the

03:11debates that took place.

03:16I have never regretted making this decision.

03:20As the guilty men now begin their prison sentences, the enduring image of this trial will be the

03:25superhuman strength of Gisèle Pellicourt, the survivor who became an icon.

03:34As we've been mentioning, Gisèle Pellicourt bravely chose to waiver her right to anonymity

03:38and throughout the trial, she looked each of her rapists in the eye.

03:42In court, she didn't just demand justice for herself, but said it's time for sweeping changes

03:46in a society that trivialises such abuses.

03:50Emma Maxwell has more.

03:55Greeted were cheers and applause outside the courtroom, as she has been every day since

04:00the trial began.

04:02I just hope that her case will help justice to change.

04:09She do it to give strength to all the women who don't have the courage to go on trial,

04:18to fight.

04:19Gisèle Pellicourt has been hailed for her bravery from her first appearance at the courthouse

04:24in Avignon.

04:26Under French law, she could have asked for the trial to play out behind closed doors.

04:31But Gisèle Pellicourt says that it wasn't bravery, but a will to change society and

04:35to raise awareness of the use of drugs to rape women that prompted her to opt for a

04:40public trial.

04:42When you're raped, there is shame.

04:44And it's not for us to have shame, it's for them.

04:47While discreet in front of the news cameras, Gisèle Pellicourt has addressed the court

04:50three times.

04:51The 72-year-old grandmother and former logistics manager has said she is totally destroyed

04:56by the abuse inflicted on her by what she thought of as her loving husband for a decade,

05:02over which time she saw doctors for gynaecological problems and what she feared was Alzheimer's

05:07from her unexplained blackouts.

05:09I've lost ten years of my life that I'll never make up for.

05:13This scar will never heal.

05:14Addressing her ex-husband in court, she asked the question she may never get to the bottom

05:19of.

05:20How could you have betrayed me to this point?

05:22Whatever trauma you go through in childhood, there's a point when you choose the way you're

05:26going to be in life.

05:28She also condemned the cowardice of the dozens of men accused of raping her at her husband's

05:32behest, who claim they didn't realise it was rape.

05:36It's time that the macho, patriarchal society that trivialises rape changes.

05:42The historic trial has made a feminist icon of Gisèle Pellicourt, sparking demonstrations

05:47of solidarity as well as debate over sexual violence, masculinity and the critical issue

05:52of consent.

05:54We hope, as she does, that it will mark a turning point in France.

06:00Let's talk more about this mass rape trial's impact with Hema Sibi who joins us now.

06:06Great to have you Hema, thanks so much for joining us.

06:08You're of course a spokesperson for Mouvement Dénib, a feminist organisation here in France.

06:14Now you've been following this trial closely, you've appeared on the programme here at France

06:1924 to speak to us about the trial and its impact.

06:23Are you satisfied with today's outcome?

06:27Today's outcome is pretty satisfying in the sense that the court condemned Dominique Pellicourt

06:34to the highest sentence.

06:36And what is commendable is that all the men that were accused of rape were actually found

06:42guilty.

06:43It can be regrettable, unfortunately, that these 50 other accused had a lighter sentence

06:51than what was requested by prosecution.

06:54This disparity may suggest that they were sort of like mere Muppets that were under

07:00the influence of Dominique Pellicourt.

07:04What we need to acknowledge is that a man who rapes is a man who rapes and there should

07:09be no lighter consequences for these actions.

07:14That being said, the verdict has shaken French society to its core, not only because of its

07:20horror, but because of the courage of Gisèle Pellicourt standing tall to get justice from

07:25the abusers and from the 51 men who raped her.

07:29She became a real voice for all the women who have been victims of predatory men in

07:34France.

07:35And I think this sentence really has the merit of also shifting the judicial focus on the

07:43actions of the perpetrators.

07:45This time and for once, it wasn't the actions of the victim that was scrutinized, but rather

07:51the actions of the men that were abusers.

07:54Yeah, let's talk a bit about Gisèle Pellicourt because, of course, at the beginning of this

07:58trial, she was just an ordinary grandmother and she wore sunglasses even in court.

08:04And now she's emerged as this image of strength.

08:07Talk to us about her impact, the fact that she had this trial be held in public.

08:13Talk about the impact that that has on French society.

08:17It has probably an indelible mark on French society.

08:22And the fact that she refused, that she waived her right to anonymity, which is typically

08:27granted in cases of sexual violence, is so powerful.

08:32By doing so, she invited society to not only stand in solidarity with her because women

08:39were waiting in her trial every day.

08:42Women were applauding for her.

08:44But she also allowed society to look at who were the men who perpetrate sexual violence

08:51and ensuring that they would not escape the consequences of this public reckoning.

08:57What society saw in this trial was that the men who rape and the rapist is not this sort

09:03of like monster alienated from society, but it's precisely the men that are around us,

09:09you know, just any men.

09:11They come from all walks of life.

09:13They have very different profiles.

09:15They don't have just one origin or ethnicity.

09:18They don't have one social background.

09:20They come from all walks of life.

09:22But what they have in common is that they're men.

09:25So by, you know, just opening the door to the trial, she allowed for women to stand

09:30in support with her.

09:31She allowed for men to support her, too.

09:34And this trial has caused a lot of like protests to erupt all over France in solidarity with

09:41Giselle, but also of women just screaming their anger against men's violence across

09:49the country.

09:50So it has had a huge impact.

09:52And I think women's rights in France have been marked by several big trials.

09:57And the Giselle Pelico for sure is one of them.

09:59There will be a before and after this trial.

10:03Yeah, some people are saying that there will be a sort of Pelico effect now on French society.

10:09I want to talk about French laws, because this case has, of course, shone a light on

10:15consent here in France and the fact that it's not part of the French Penal Code.

10:22Can you see a consent provision being added to the laws here in France anytime soon?

10:28It is currently a debate that is taking place.

10:31And it's also a debate that is, you know, like stirring a lot of discussions in the

10:35feminist movement.

10:38What we can see is that the current definition of rape for this specific trial allowed for

10:44the accused to be convicted, because in France, we have the element of rape by surprise.

10:51And since the victim was chemically submitted, the surprise element was the one that was

10:57held by the justice to hold these perpetrators accountable.

11:01So a lot of debates are going on towards including consent on the definition of rape or not.

11:08But I'm not sure that we will know soon enough if this will happen or not.

11:14And Emma, I want to circle back to something you were mentioning just before about the

11:17fact that many of the men involved in this trial, many of the defendants are everyday

11:22men.

11:23They're men that we encounter on a day to day basis.

11:24I think there's a journalist among them, a firefighter also among them.

11:29So these are men that we can encounter at any time.

11:32Where has society gone wrong to the point that these ordinary men can be involved in

11:38such horrific acts?

11:41I think this case was the case of the rape culture.

11:46And that's where society went wrong, is that we have some very patriarchal structures that

11:51are a part of our systems and that foster the fact that women, the violence against

11:57women, that men's violence against women is actually organized and is allowed and enabled

12:04in France by this very rape culture.

12:07We saw in this trial that the rapist, and Giselle Pelico said it herself, is not someone

12:13who just attacks you in a parking lot in the dark at night.

12:17We saw in this trial that actually raping was a part of a strategy, which we can call

12:23the perpetrator strategy.

12:25No, the rapist is not someone who is acting on behalf of some sort of like irrepressible

12:31sexual needs.

12:33While this notion is very archaic, we need to acknowledge that the rapist is someone

12:37who carefully plans this violent act.

12:41This was the case in the Pelico case, because the rapists were all meeting on this website

12:47called Coco.fr, a website which was very well known in France for gathering pimps,

12:54sex buyers, abusers, for having pedo-criminal images and pornographic content of children.

13:03This website has so many charges, judicial charges, even one for murderers.

13:09And they all met on this website.

13:12They all clicked on the forum without her knowledge.

13:16They all discussed with Dominique Pelico, and they all went through with the rape of

13:21Giselle Pelico.

13:22So this was a strategy.

13:25And the defense arguments that were highlighted really shows how deeply sexual violence is

13:30entrenched in the French society, because they really underlined a vision of women as

13:36interchangeable commodities, as properties of their husband, as being sort of like dispossessed

13:42of any of their free will if the husband gave his authorization over them.

13:48So it's not just about Giselle Pelico, it's about all women.

13:52Hema, great to have you.

13:54Thanks so much for giving us your insight there.

13:55That's Hema Sibi, who is a spokesperson for the movement, the association called Mouvement

14:01du Nib.

14:02She just joined us there.

14:03Thanks so much for giving us your insight.

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