Gisele Pelicot’s assertion in full: Everything she mentioned exterior courtroom after 51 males sentenced for abusing her | EUROtoday

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Dominique Pelicot has been discovered responsible by a French courtroom of repeatedly drugging and raping his spouse for nearly a decade, and alluring dozens of strangers to rape her unconscious physique in a case that has horrified the world.

All of Pelicot’s 50 co-defendants had been additionally discovered responsible of rape, tried rape or sexual assault, whereas their sufferer, Gisèle Pelicot, sat within the packed courtroom to listen to the sentencing, having waived her proper to anonymity.

Gisèle, 72, has turn out to be a logo of feminine braveness and resilience through the three-month trial and crowds of supporters exterior the courthouse within the southern metropolis of Avignon cheered as she appeared after the verdicts had been learn out.

“This trial was a very difficult ordeal,” she mentioned in her first feedback on the finish of the sentencing, including that she didn’t remorse her choice to let the case be heard in public.

Dominique Pelicot, who was married to Gisele for 50 years, had pleaded responsible to the fees and a panel of 5 judges sentenced him to the utmost 20 years in jail, as requested by prosecutors.

The courtroom discovered 46 of the opposite defendants responsible of rape, two responsible of tried rape and two responsible of sexual assault, handing down sentences of between three and 15 years in jail, lower than the four-to-18 years demanded by the prosecution.

Here is Gisele Pelicot’s assertion in full:

“It is with deep emotion that I speak to you today.

“This trial was a very difficult ordeal. I think first of all of my three children, David, Caroline and Florian. I also think of my grandchildren because they are the future and it is also for them that I have led this fight, as well as my daughters-in-law Aurore and Céline. I also think of all the other families affected by this tragedy.

“Finally, I think of the unrecognized victims whose stories often remain in the shadows. I want you to know that we share the same fight.

“I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all the people who supported me throughout this ordeal. Your testimonies have upset me and I have drawn from them the strength to come back every day. Long days of hearings.

“I also thank the victims’ aid association for our unwavering support. It has been invaluable to me. To all the journalists who have followed me and followed this case since its inception. I wish to express my gratitude for the faithful, respectful and dignified treatment in which they reported daily on these hearings.

“To my lawyers, finally, all the gratitude and esteem that I have for them for having accompanied me at each stage of this painful journey.

“I wanted, by opening the doors of this trial on September 2, that society could take hold of the debates that took place there.

“I have never regretted this decision. I now have confidence in our ability to collectively seize a future in which each woman and man can live in harmony with respect and mutual understanding. I thank you.”