Dominique Pelicot, the 72-year-old who admitted to drugging his wife for years in France and inviting dozens of men to join him in raping her, will not appeal his conviction on aggravated rape and other charges, his lawyer said on Monday.
But the horrific story, which galvanized women in France and beyond to speak out against spousal violence and rape culture, is far from over. Seventeen of the 50 other men found guilty in the case have appealed, according to the lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, and more appeals could be filed before a court-established deadline of Monday night.
During the trial, Mr. Pelicot had said he expected the five-judge panel to give him the maximum 20-year sentence for his crimes against his now former wife, Gisèle Pelicot. The judges did so on Dec. 19, when all the verdicts and sentences were announced.
With the revelations of his crimes, Mr. Pelicot became one of France’s most notorious sexual predators.
On Monday, Ms. Zavarro said in an interview with French public radio that Mr. Pelicot believed that an appeal would constitute a “new ordeal” for Ms. Pelicot, “whom he has always indicated in the proceedings was not his adversary.” She also said that she did not want her client to run the risk of new charges and a harsher sentence, which would be a possibility if he were to appeal.
The 50 other defendants, most of whom were found guilty of rape, received sentences from three to 15 years. Six of them walked free because they had already served most or all of their jail time before the trial.
Under French law, the men who appealed their convictions will now have the right to a new trial, this time before a nine-person jury. Prosecutors have options when it comes to what that trial could look like, including that they could choose to try only the men who appealed or could choose to try all 51 men again.
The court has not confirmed the identity of the 17 men who filed an appeal nor the nature of the appeals; either the sentence or the verdict or both may be appealed.
More than 30 of the defendants admitted to having sex with Ms. Pelicot but said that they had never intended to rape her. Most of them blamed Mr. Pelicot for tricking them into believing that they would join the Pelicots for a consensual threesome and that Ms. Pelicot would be pretending to sleep or had taken sleeping pills herself. Some of the defendants said they thought Mr. Pelicot had drugged them, too, a charge he denied.
On Monday morning, Carine Monzat, a lawyer for one of the men found guilty, said in a text message that she was still reviewing the court’s decision on her client and had filed his appeal to keep his options open. She said that they could decide to withdraw it eventually.
In choosing to have her trial, and her identity, made public, Ms. Pelicot was lauded as a feminist icon and a model of courage for women who have suffered sexual violence. In brief remarks to reporters shortly after the verdicts, she paid homage to “the victims, unrecognized, whose stories often remain hidden. I want you to know that we share the same struggle.”
In a phone interview on Monday, one of Ms. Pelicot’s lawyers, Stéphane Babonneau, said that Ms. Pelicot was aware that the guilty verdicts and sentencings had been “only a first step.”
Ms. Pelicot, he said, respects the right of the men to appeal. “Clearly she would have preferred it not to happen,” he said. “But if she has to take part in a second trial, she will. She’s serene about it.”
He added: “She is ready to face it if she has to, and she is better armed for it today because she knows what to expect.”
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