If the trial of 51 men accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot showed us what French society thinks of rape, the recent verdict showed us what the French criminal justice system thinks of it. In her Metro op-ed, Dr Ann Olivarius reflects on the trial’s outcome. As a lawyer who has represented hundreds of sexual violence survivors, she finds the sentences disappointingly lenient.
Extract:
Dominque Pelicot. 20 years.
Charly Arbo. 13 years.
Didier Sambuchi. Five years.
51 men have been sentenced after being found guilty of raping Gisele Pelicot after she was drugged by her husband.
Most have been jailed, but some, like Patrick Aron, walked free on health grounds while arrangements are made for a special jail.
But for many people, the verdict showed us that the French criminal justice system still has much more to do.
As a civil lawyer who has represented hundreds of victims of sexual violence in the UK, I may not have been pleased by the sentences, which were much shorter than the prosecution had asked for, but I sadly wasn’t surprised.
Ms Pelicot insisted on a public trial because she believed it would expose how a ‘macho’ society that ‘trivialises rape’ was responsible for the crimes committed against her.
I was pleased to see that the weeks of evidence certainly did expose this social disease, but the verdicts could have done more to cure it.
Maximum sentences for all 51 men, would have been appropriate.
But I’m still glad.
I’m glad that every man was found guilty. I’m glad that the judges didn’t buy the defence’s argument that under French law, sexual activity does not require consent.
We have all been horrified by what we learned these past months – the videos submitted as evidence showing that Gisele Pelicot was choked during oral rape, that humiliating slogans were written on her body, that one man thought she was dead.
The cascade of wrongs is so depraved to be almost literally unbelievable.
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