Prosecutors seek 20-year sentence for Pelicot in French rape trial

AVIGNON, France: French prosecutors on Monday demanded a maximum 20-year jail term for the man charged with enlisting dozens of strangers to rape his heavily sedated wife, in a trial that has shaken France.

Dominique Pelicot has been on trial in the southern city of Avignon since September with 49 other men for organising the rapes and sexual abuse of Gisele Pelicot, now his former wife. One man is being tried in absentia.

The case has shocked France, which like other countries has seen a series of sexual abuse cases, and a prosecutor told the court that the trial needed to herald a fundamental change in relations between men and women.

“Twenty years is a lot because it is 20 years of a life,” prosecutor Laure Chabaud said. “But it is both a lot and too little. Too little in view of the seriousness of the acts that were committed and repeated.”

Dominique Pelicot has admitted all the charges linked to his plying Gisele Pelicot with anti-anxiety drugs from 2011 to 2020, leaving her exposed to abuse by strangers recruited online. He documented the crimes in photos and videos discovered by police after being caught filming up women´s skirts in public.

“It´s a very emotional moment,” said Gisele Pelicot as she entered the courtroom. Prosecutors must also demand punishments for the other defendants: men aged 26 to 74 from all walks of life.