[guest post by Dana]

Although it appears that the sentencing for Dominique Pelicot follows French guidelines, I agree with Gisèle Pelicot‘a kids: that the guilty men involved weren’t given nearly enough jail time for their heinous crimes:

A judge in France on Thursday found the former husband of Gisèle Pelicot, who admitted to drugging and raping her repeatedly over the course of almost a decade and inviting dozens of other men to assault her as well, guilty of aggravated rape. Forty-nine men whom Dominique Pelicot brought into his home to assault his wife were also convicted Thursday as part of the same landmark trial.

The man convicted of orchestrating the sustained assaults over the years was given the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, while his co-accused were handed sentences ranging from three to 15 years.

As the NYT previously reported:

Gisèle had no idea about the rapes until police told her after discovering thousands of photos and videos taken by her then-husband, who had documented the abuse after recruiting strangers on the internet.

About the sentencing of the defendants other than Pelicot, there is this:

Of the 50 accused of rape, just one was acquitted but was instead convicted of aggravated sexual assault. Another man was also found guilty of the sexual assault charge he was tried for — producing 51 guilty verdicts in all.

. . . the court was more lenient, with many defendants getting less than a decade in prison. The five judges voted by secret ballot, by majority for the convictions and sentences.

For the defendants other than Dominique Pelicot, sentences ranged from three to 15 years imprisonment, with some of the time suspended for some of them. Arata told six defendants they were now free, accounting for time already spent in pretrial detention.

Gisèle Pelicot proved herself a courageous individual, who, although the victim of a cruel nightmare, went public with her name and the crimes against her:

The trial began on Sept. 2 and, almost every day, Pelicot came face to face with her former husband, Dominique, or one of the 50 other men charged with assaulting her. She insisted that videos submitted as evidence, made by her ex-husband and showing men assaulting her while she appeared unconscious, be shown in the court.

After thanking her supporters for giving her strength during the arduous trial, she made a larger point:

“I wanted to open the doors of this trial last September so that society could see what was happening. I’ll never regret this decision. I have confidence in our capacity, collectively, to find a better future, in which men and women alike can live harmlessly together with mutual respect,” she said.

One can only hope that other rape victims take courage from Pelicot. How refreshing it would be to see rapists humiliated and shamed rather than victims. As Pelicot said about the guilty men: “It’s not for us to feel shame — it’s for them.”

May she find some peace in her life after this dark, dark season.

—Dana