(19 Dec 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Avignon – 19 December 2024
1. Gisèle Pelicot walking out of courtroom
2. SOUNDBITE (French) Gisèle Pelicot, rape survivor:
"It’s with profound emotion that I speak today before you. This trial was a very difficult ordeal and in this moment, I think, firstly, about my three children, David, Caroline and Florian. I also think about my grandchildren because they are the future and it is also for them that I led this fight but also my daughters-in-law, Aurore and Céline."
++WHITE FLASH++
3. SOUNDBITE (French) Gisèle Pelicot, rape survivor:
"I also think of all these other families that were impacted by this tragedy. Finally, I also think of all the unknown victims whose stories remain untold. I want you to know that we share the same fight. I wish to express my profound gratitude towards the people who supported me throughout this ordeal. Your messages (testimonies) moved me deeply, and they gave me the strength to come back, every day, and survive through these long daily hearings."
++WHITE FLASH++
4. SOUNDBITE (French) Gisèle Pelicot, rape survivor:
"By opening the doors of this trial on September 2, I wanted all of society to be a witness to the debates that took place here. I never regretted making this decision. I have trust in our capacity to collectively project ourselves towards a future where all, women and men, can live in harmony, with respect and mutual understanding. Thank you."
5. Pelicot leaving
STORYLINE:
After 51 men were all found guilty in the drugging and rape trial in France that turned Gisèle Pelicot into a feminist hero, she said on Friday that the ordeal was “very difficult” and expressed support for other victims of sexual violence.
They were her first words after the court in the southern French city of Avignon handed down prison sentences ranging from three to 20 years.
“I want you to know that we share the same fight,” she said in her first words after the court in the southern French city of Avignon handed down prison sentences ranging from three to 20 years in the shocking case that stunned France and spurred a national reckoning about the blight of rape culture.
As campaigners against sexual violence protested outside the courthouse, the 72-year-old expressed “my profound gratitude towards the people who supported me."
Pelicot — now an icon for many women in France and beyond after her courageous demand that all the evidence be heard in open court — also said she was thinking of her grandchildren after enduring the more than three months of hearings that prosecuted the rapes and other abuse inflicted on her by her now ex-husband and his more than four dozen accomplices over nearly a decade.
“It’s also for them that I led this fight," she said of her grandchildren. “I wanted all of society to be a witness to the debates that took place here. I never regretted making this decision. I have trust in our capacity to collectively project ourselves toward a future where all, women and men, can live in harmony, with respect and mutual understanding. Thank you.”
The court sentenced her ex-husband, Dominique Pelicot, to 20 years in prison for drugging and raping her and allowing other men to rape her while she was unconscious, knocked out by tranquilizers he hid in her food and drink.
The sentence was the maximum possible under French law. He was declared guilty on all charges. At age 72, he could spend the rest of his life in prison. He won’t be eligible to request early release until at least two-thirds of the sentence has been served.
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