Dominique Pelicot drugged his spouse and invited dozens of strangers to their house to rape her over a nine-year interval.
Prosecutors in France have demanded the utmost 20-year jail sentence for a person who organised the mass rape of his then-wife for nearly a decade.
Dominique Pelicot knocked his spouse Gisele Pelicot unconscious with medication and invited dozens of strangers to abuse her of their household houses in Paris and the southern city of Mazan between 2011 and 2020.
The 71-year-old admitted to all costs in opposition to him in a trial that has scandalised France and drawn worldwide consideration to the difficulty of sexual violence.
Forty-nine different males have additionally been placed on trial for taking part within the abuse. Prosecutors are anticipated to announce what sentences they may search in opposition to the co-accused over the following two days.
Prosecutors have rejected arguments made by lots of the males, aged between 21 and 68 on the time of the assaults, that they believed they had been taking part in a consensual fantasy or weren’t of their proper thoughts.
Footage performed in courtroom over current weeks, a part of some 20,000 movies and footage recorded by Dominique Pelicot, confirmed Gisele mendacity immobile whereas males assaulted her.
“The accused are attempting to shirk accountability by saying they thought Gisele Pelicot consented,” public prosecutor Laure Chabaud informed the packed courtroom within the metropolis of Avignon.
“However it’s not potential, in the present day, in 2024, to contemplate that,” Chabaud added.
Chabaud stated that whereas 20 years is the utmost sentence that may be handed to Dominique, it’s “too little in view of the seriousness of the acts that had been dedicated and repeated”.
Prosecutors additionally stated they had been looking for a 17-year sentence for Jean-Pierre Marechal.
The 63-year-old – who Dominique met on a now-shuttered chatroom of males soliciting rape materials – has additionally admitted to drugging his personal spouse to ensure that each males to rape her.
Sentencing for the accused is predicted to happen on the trial’s conclusion round December 20.
Gisele might have demanded the trial be stored behind closed doorways, however as a substitute requested for it to be made public.
The 71-year-old stated she hoped it might assist different girls communicate up and deal with stigma for survivors of sexual violence.
The trial has triggered rallies in assist of Gisele in France, and spurred a debate on whether or not to replace the nation’s rape regulation, which at present makes no point out of a requirement that intercourse contain consent.
As an alternative, prosecutors are required to show a perpetrator’s intent to rape utilizing “violence, coercion, menace or shock”.
