French Court Increases Sentence for Man Who Appealed Gisele Pelicot Rape Conviction

A French court increased the sentence of the only man who appealed his conviction in Gisele Pelicot’s rape case from nine to ten years. Pelicot’s ex-husband had admitted to drugging her and enabling repeated assaults. In court, Gisele told the appellant she never gave consent, while investigators confirmed he was fully aware of her condition despite his claims of being manipulated.

The only man who appealed his conviction in the rape case of Gisele Pelicot was found guilty on Thursday and sentenced by a jury in Nimes, France, to 10 years in prison. The ruling increased his jail time, as he had originally been sentenced to nine years before his appeal.

Gisele Pelicot’s former husband admitted to drugging her with sedatives and inviting dozens of men to their home to rape and abuse her over nearly a decade. Dominique Pelicot, 72, received the maximum possible sentence of 20 years. He and 49 other men convicted in a case that shocked France and the wider world are not appealing.

However, one 44-year-old man maintained his innocence, blaming Pelicot’s husband for luring him to the home and claiming he felt trapped.

Gisele Pelicot appeared in court on Wednesday, telling the man appealing his rape conviction that she “never” gave him her consent. Pelicot, who was greeted with applause each time she arrived in the courtroom in the southern city this week, confronted the appellant directly.

“At what moment did I give you my consent?” she asked. “Never.”

“Take responsibility for your actions and stop hiding behind your cowardice,” she said.

One of Pelicot’s lawyers, Antoine Camus, told France’s AFP news agency that his client would have preferred to focus on her future. However, he said she was “astounded by the defendant’s continued denial, despite the material evidence.”

“She needs to see this through to the end,” Camus added.

Pelicot was also blunt in her criticism of the defendant’s lawyer when asked if she had ever suspected her husband during the years of abuse.

“Do you think that if I had known Dominique Pelicot was drugging me, I wouldn’t have reported him? Are you joking?” she replied.

The 44-year-old man continued to blame Pelicot’s husband for orchestrating the situation, despite more than 100 photographs and various video footage showing the two men raping the victim, some of which was shown in court.

He claimed that he felt “trapped” in the situation at the Pelicots’ home. “I wanted to stop. At one point, I became very suspicious. I continued because he reassured me,” he told the court. “He’s the manipulator, not me. He’s the one who lured me there.”

Dominique Pelicot rejected this argument, insisting the defendant had been a willing participant who knew his wife would be asleep. “I never forced anyone,” he said.

Jeremie Bosse-Platiere, the police officer who led the investigation into what became known in France as the Mazan case, also dismissed the defendant’s claims. “I have no doubt that he was fully aware of the victim’s condition,” he said.

He described a point in one of the videos where Gisele Pelicot could be seen moving slightly and the defendant immediately moved away, saying he appeared “worried that his victim might wake up” and froze in a “waiting position.”

Bosse-Platiere also challenged the defendant’s claim of having been in the Pelicot home for just half an hour, telling the court that evidence showed he stayed at the scene for “at least three hours and twenty-four minutes.”