France‘s worst-ever sexual abuse case has finally concluded after a months-long trial with 51 men brought to justice for their heinous crimes.
Dominique Pelicot, 72, who has come to be known as the Monster of Avignon, drugged, raped and organised the repeated rape and sexual abuse of his now-ex-wife Gisele Pelicot by dozens of other men.
Firefighters, soldiers, lorry drivers, a DJ and a journalist are among those found guilty of raping 71-year-old Gisele at the behest of her husband Dominique over the course of a decade – all without her knowledge.
Today, the Monster of Avignon was slapped with a 20-year prison term by Judge Roger Arata after he pleaded guilty to drugging her repeatedly for almost a decade to rape her and to offer up her unconscious body for sex to dozens of strangers.
Several abusers have escaped justice, with police unable to identify more than 20 men involved in Gisele’s abuse.
But Arata handed down guilty sentences to another 50 men besides Pelicot, many of whom contacted Gisele’s husband online and were invited to his home in the sleepy Provence village of Mazan to assault his unconscious wife on camera.
In all, the court found 47 of the defendants guilty of rape, two guilty of attempted rape and two guilty of sexual assault.
Chaos erupted outside the courtroom with a large group of baying protesters gathered outside shouting ‘shame on you’ as the defendants emerged, hiding their faces behind masks and under hoods.
Meanwhile, the lawyer for one defendant who was found guilty of sexual assault but walks free having already spent the length of his sentence behind bars was filmed laughing at the protesters, labelling them ‘a bunch of hysterical knitters’ and taunting them by saying ‘my client has a message for you – the message is s***’.
He went on to say: ‘Your request for 20-year prison sentences for all the defendants has been refused… My client walks free, he says ‘Up yours!’
Now, as the trial comes to a close, these are the disturbing testimonies and astonishing excuses given by the men accompanying Pelicot in court, along with their verdicts and sentences in full.
Dominique Pelicot, 72
Pelicot, who had been with Gisele for 50 years and shares three children with her, has admitted to serially raping and allowing others to abuse his wife.
‘I am a rapist just like all the others in this room,’ he said, adding: ‘I ask my wife, my children, my grandchildren to accept my apologies. I regret what I did. I ask for your forgiveness, even if it is not forgivable.’
Pelicot told the courtroom he had a difficult upbringing and had himself been a victim of rape, crying at times as he gave his testimony.
He said he had wanted his wife to participate in partner swaps and her refusal, together with trauma from his youth, had helped to trigger his abusive behaviour.
‘It became a perversion, an addiction,’ he told the courtroom.
Pelicot said he had filmed the acts of abuse as an insurance policy in case one of the men involved reacted poorly.
He was today found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in jail.
The Monster of Avignon’s lawyer Beatrice Zavarro said no decision has yet been made on whether he will appeal his sentence.
She says she will not criticise any decision made by the courts, adding they now had 10 days to discuss whether to bring forward a challenge to the ruling.
Thierry Postat, 61, refrigeration specialist
The father-of-three denied raping Gisele on August 21, 2020, saying he did not see anything out of the ordinary about the night in question and had previously had encounters with couples where the man had given consent for the woman.
‘I always thought Mrs Pelicot would wake up,’ he told the court. ‘She wasn’t cold, she wasn’t dead, her skin was soft.’
The 61-year-old is also charged with possession of hundreds of child abuse images which were found after his arrest in the Pelicot case, charges he admits to.
Found guilty of aggravated rape and possessing child pornography, sentenced to 12 years in prison and banned from working with children for life.
Lionel Rodriguez, 44, supermarket worker
The father-of-three admitted that he was guilty of raping Gisele on December 2, 2018 – though he said he had not intended to.
‘Since I never obtained Gisele’s consent, I have no choice but to accept the facts,’ he told the court, before apologising to his victim for the ‘nightmare’ she had endured.
He added: ‘I never told myself: ”I will rape that woman”,’ but admitted that he should have left when he saw Gisele was unconscious, and that it was cowardly of him not to have said anything.
He put some of the blame on Pelicot, saying he had done what the husband had told him to do.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to eight years in prison.
Jean-Luc La, 46, manual labourer
The 46-year-old pleaded for leniency, telling the court he doesn’t deserve a 14-year jail term for joining the mass rape of Gisele Pelicot because he is ‘weak and finds it hard to say no’.
His wife said he only went to meet with Pelicot because she refused to have sex with him at the time. Gisele told her that she was not to blame for her husband’s actions.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to ten years in prison.
Husamettin Dogan, 43, unemployed carer for his disabled son
The married father was accused of raping Gisele in June 2019, but denied the charge.
‘I don’t accept being called a rapist, I’m not a rapist,’ he told the court.
The 43-year-old, who had given up part-time work to care for his disabled son, had made contact with Pelicot and went to his home in the same night, telling his wife he was going out.
He admitted that he found it strange that Gisele’s legs were dangling awkwardly and said she had ‘seemed dead’.
But, he claims he had believed it was ‘staged and part of the game’. To this day he says: ‘I am not a rapist.’
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to nine years in prison.
Christian Lescole, 57, volunteer firefighter
The 57-year-old firefighter, who was filmed while wearing his uniform, said in court: ‘My body raped her, but my brain didn’t.’
He agreed to visit the Pelicot home in Mazan one afternoon in January 2019, claiming he believed he was taking part in a sex game in which Ms Pelicot was a willing participant and was pretending to be asleep.
Footage from a shocking sex tape shown in court allegedly showed how Lescole grinned to the camera with a thumbs-up as he assaulted her.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to nine years in prison.
Jacques Cubeau, 72, former firefighter
Cubeau, a father-of-two who had been married for 25 years, denied raping Gisele.
He admitted touching her but said there had been no penetration and as such no rape had taken place.
He told the court he had been ‘naive’ and had believed it was a game between the couple and that she would wake up.
The former fire officer, who went on to run a pizzeria and work as a lorry driver, considered that his religious education had made him a ‘giving person’ who respected and loved women ‘in all their complexity’.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to five years in prison.
Cyrille Delville, 54, butcher
He said he visited the Pelicots in September 2019 when his partner was on holiday with their children.
He said he had been ‘sexually frustrated’ and wanted to ‘console’ himself.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to eight years in prison.
Joan Kawai, 26, soldier
The 26-year-old is the youngest of the defendants and was aged 22 when he allegedly raped Gisele on two separate visits to her home in 2019 and 2020.
The soldier first went to the house in November 2019, the day his daughter was born.
He then went back another time, and admits to having set off for a third visit, which Pelicot cancelled at the last minute.
In front of the investigators, he first stated that he had not asked himself the question of whether Gisele had consented.
Then, confronted with the photos, he admitted that she was unconscious and that it was a rape.
At the beginning of the trial, he said he ‘recognised the facts, but not the intention’.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to eight years in prison.
Matthieu Dartus, 53, former baker
Father of two Dartus worked for more than two decades as a baker but subsequently left his job due to allergies.
He was accused of raping Gisele with her husband in October 2020, weeks before police arrested the abusive mastermind.
‘I can’t deny it was rape,’ he said, but added that he was high on the drug MDMA at the time of the crime and thought he was playing a game with a married couple.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to seven years in prison.
Mahdi Daoudi, 36, transport worker
The 36-year-old came into contact with Pelicot online and was accused of raping Gisele in October 2018, which he denied.
He says what happened to her is terrible and places the blame on Pelicot, adding that it was also ‘terrible’ for him to have been caught up in something like this.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to eight years in prison.
Hugues Malago, 39, tiler
The tiler, motorbike enthusiast and father of two was accused of the attempted rape of Gisele a few days before his then-girlfriend’s birthday in October 2019.
He denied the charge. He said he did not know Gisele was drugged and had not looked at her face, just her body.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to five years in prison.
Romain Vandevelde, 63, forklift driver
The 63-year-old former forklift driver was accused of raping Gisele six times over six months between 2019 and 2020.
She was unconscious each time, but he denied raping her, saying that ‘her husband invited me in’ and that a husband’s consent was enough.
He told the court he had known that he was HIV positive at the time of the alleged rapes and had not worn a condom.
Gisele did not contract an infection because he was on treatment and had a low viral load.
He said his reason for visiting the Pelicots’ house the first time was because: ‘I felt lonely. Christmas was approaching and I was going to be on my own again. I was looking for friendship.’
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Andy Rodriguez, 37, unemployed farm worker
The unemployed farmhand and father-of-two was accused of raping Gisele on New Year’s Eve 2018.
The 37-year-old, who has two domestic violence convictions, said he did not intend to rape Gisele, telling the court: ‘As the husband had given me permission, in my mind she agreed to it.’
An alcoholic and regular cocaine user, he said he went to the Pelicots’ home on New Year’s as he had ‘nothing better to do’ after not being invited to his brother’s party.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to six years in prison.
Simone Mekenese, 42, builder and ex-soldier
The father-of-five was the only alleged rapist, apart from her husband, who Gisele recognised when she was shown tapes by police.
He was accused of raping Gisele on November 14, 2018, a charge he denied.
The former mountain infantryman got in touch with Pelicot online before realising they lived less than 200 metres apart.
He visited the Pelicots’ home in the day after Pelicot told him to come over to ‘see how beautiful my wife is.’
‘If she asks, say you’ve come to discuss my bike,’ he told his neighbour.
Asked why he went to have sex with Gisele, he told the court: ‘Things were going badly with my ex-wife, I was looking for love, an encounter to calm myself.’
His ex-wife said he had once threatened her with an axe. He had a one-year-old daughter with his current partner, who told the court she stands by him.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to nine years in prison.
Fabien Sotton, 39, convicted criminal
The 39-year-old, who has 16 previous convictions for crimes ranging from armed robber and drug dealing to domestic violence and sexually assaulting a minor, admitted to raping Gisele in August 2018.
Gisele was drugged in her evening meal and carried by her husband to the dining room, where she was attacked, the court heard.
Sotton said he had not gone to the Pelicots’ home with the intention of raping her, telling the court: ‘I didn’t know I was supposed to rape her, but I recognise the facts.’
He added that he had ‘not paid attention’ to whether or not she consented and said he was not interested in having sex with an unconscious woman because he liked to hear women scream.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Jerome Vilela, 46, former grocer
The father-of-three admitted that he raped Gisele and that he had been aware that she was drugged.
He allegedly went to the Pelicots’ home on six separate occasions between March and June 2020.
He told the court: ‘I didn’t keep going back because rape mode was my thing, but because I couldn’t control my sexuality.’
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to eight years in prison.
Thierry Parisis, 54, former builder
The 54-year-old, who had separated from his wife several weeks prior to the alleged attack in July 2020, said he had contacted Pelicot online seeking an encounter with a couple.
He denied rape, saying: ‘I didn’t set out from my house saying: ‘I’m going to rape someone.’
‘I don’t understand how she didn’t feel anything, didn’t realise,’ he went on, adding that Pelicot may have drugged him and that he had been brainwashed by him.
Found guilty of aggravated rape and administering substances, sentenced to eight years in prison.
Adrien Longeron, 34, son of wealthy building contractor
Among the youngest of the accused, Longeron denied raping Gisele in March 2014, when he was aged 23.
From a wealthy background, he was aged 21 when he found out from a paternity test that he was not the biological father of a three-year-old child he had been raising as his own with his girlfriend. From then on, he said, ‘I had a hatred towards women’.
The night he allegedly raped Gisele, his then-girlfriend was nine months pregnant and gave birth just over a week later.
The former site manager was last year convicted of the rapes of three former partners and is currently serving a 14-year jail sentence.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to another six years in prison.
Quentin Hennebert, 43, lorry driver
Quentin Hennebert was accused of raping Gisele in her bed in November 2019, and has admitted the charge of rape.
He said he sold drugs on the website where Pelicot got in contact with him and other men, allegedly telling him he had a female ‘friend’ who ‘had a fantasy about playing the sleeping woman’.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to seven years in prison.
Jean Tirano, 52, roofer
The 52-year-old allegedly drove two-and-a-half hours to rape Gisele, a charge he denied.
He claims he was drugged and ‘does not remember anything’. Judges observed he did not appear drugged in seven videos of the encounter, at one point giving a thumbs up to the camera.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to eight years in prison.
Redouan El Farihi, 55, community nurse
The 55-year-old allegedly raped Gisele at her home on a Saturday night in June 2019.
He denied rape and said he thought Gisele had been pretending to be dead ‘but never that she’d been drugged,’ despite being a trained anaesthesia nurse.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to eight years in prison.
Didier Sambuchi, 68, truck driver
The lorry driver and divorced father-of-two said he had gone to the Pelicots’ ‘exclusively for a homosexual encounter’ with Pelicot on January 30, 2019.
He said he believed Gisele had been pretending to be asleep and denied the charge of rape.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to eight years in prison.
Karim Sebaoui, 40, computer expert
The 40-year-old denied raping Gisele on June 27, 2020, and said he did not attend a second meeting with Pelicot because the first one was ‘too bizarre’.
The IT expert was also accused of possessing child pornography, which he claimed to have downloaded by accident.
Found guilty of aggravated rape and possessing child pornography, sentenced to ten years in prison.
Vincent Coullet, 42, carpenter
The carpenter was accused of raping Gisele twice, in October 2019 and January 2020, but denied the charges.
He said he felt no pleasure during the encounter but that Pelicot had told him he ‘enjoyed it’.
Pelicot told him his wife had watched a video of the first visit and ‘liked it’, which he believed ‘closed the door on any doubt’.
He added that he felt he had ‘satisfied’ the Pelicots more than himself. Gisele found the statements so unbearable that she got up and left the courtroom briefly.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to ten years in prison.
Jean-Marc Leloup, 74, truck driver
The eldest defendant denied raping Gisele in May 2017, telling the court it had been, in his mind, a ‘sexual game’.
The truck driver said he believed Gisele would wake up and said he had ‘obeyed orders’ from her husband.
Found guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to six years in prison.
Dominique Davies, 45, lorry driver and ex-soldier
The 45-year-old said he was contacted by Pelicot online in February 2015, saying he was looking for a man as a ‘gift’ for his wife ‘for Valentine’s Day’.
Found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Mohamed Rafaa, 70, former discotheque worker
The 70-year-old was accused of raping Gisele in May 2019 at the Île-de-Ré holiday cottage of the Pelicots’ daughter, Caroline. He denied the charge.
He has already served five years in prison for the rape of his 17-year-old daughter in 1999.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to eight years in prison.
Ahmed Tbarik, 54, plumber
The father-of-three, who has been married for 30 years, was accused of raping Gisele at the couple’s home in June 2019 after meeting Pelicot in a chatroom.
He denied rape and told the court: ‘I’m not a rapist, but if I had wanted to rape I wouldn’t have chosen a 57-year-old woman, I would have chosen a pretty one.’
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to eight years in prison.
Redouane Azougagh, 40, unemployed
The father-of-four was accused of going to the Pelicots’ home twice in 2019, but has denied rape.
He said he asked Pelicot whether it was normal for his wife to be snoring, to which he said he responded: ‘Yes, we like doing it like that.’
He described the Pelicots’ home as ‘a beautiful house in Provence’ with a ‘well-kept garden’.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to nine years in prison.
Cyril Beaubis, 47, lorry driver
The lorry driver was accused of raping Gisele at her home in November 2018.
He denied rape and said he had been manipulated to believe it was a game and was a victim of by Pelicot, who he met in a chatroom.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to nine years in prison.
Gregory Serviol, 31, painter and decorator
The 31-year-old, who was 24 when the alleged rape happened in June 2017, denied the rape and said he had believed Pelicot when he assured him that his wife liked to ‘make love while drunk’.
He claims Pelicot pressured him to rape her. In the videos of the act, Gregory can be seen smiling.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to eight years in prison.
Florian Rocca, 32, parcel delivery man
The delivery driver, who denied raping Gisele in December 2019, said he drove to the couple’s house ‘out of curiosity’ and drank a bottle of whiskey beforehand.
He said he had met Pelicot online and had believed it was a ‘consenting game between three people’.
Patrice Nicolle, 55, electrician
The 55-year-old electrician drove 20 minutes to meet Pelicot at his home on a Monday night in February 2020 after making contact with Pelicot online.
Gisele was snoring loudly, video evidence shows, with Patrice Nicolle claiming he did not notice she was asleep as he had sex with her.
He claimed to have called Pelicot ‘sick’ when he told him that he drugged and offered his wife up to other men.
Asked why he did not report this to police, he said: ‘I didn’t want to waste my time at the police station. I’m a humble neighbourhood electrician. If I went to the police and said she’s unconscious, who would have believed me?’
Gisele, watching from her seat in court, shook her head at this response.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to eight years in prison.
Abdelali Dallal, 47, former canteen worker
Dallal told investigators he met Pelicot online on a swingers website called Coco.fr which has since closed.
He said he had been invited to Pelicot’s home in Mazan to sleep with his wife.
Speaking before him, Dallal’s former partner told the court in Avignon how she had driven him to the Pelicot home in the nearby picturesque village of Mazan but she said she hadn’t asked him why he was there.
Found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to eight years in prison – but will walk free due to significant medical issues.
Cedric Grassot, 50, IT worker
The 50-year-old admitted to the rape, but said that Pelicot should shoulder most of the blame as ‘the conductor’ of the mass rapes.
He asked for drugs from Pelicot because he said he wanted to incapacitate his own girlfriend and rape her, according to reports, but this did not happen.
Found guilty of aggravated rape and possessing child pornography, sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Cendric Venzin, 44, former foreign legionnaire
A former soldier in the French foreign legion, Cendric V was unemployed when he is alleged to have raped Gisele on two occasions in 2016 and 2018.
He previously denied rape, but in court he changed his mind and said that it was not possible to deny ‘the facts’ of what had happened.
He said that he had believed that Gisele was consenting, but in court recognised she had not and apologised.
‘I have always said that I did not intend to rape anyone,’ he said, adding that he had felt tricked by Pelicot and had believed he was going to have an encounter with a consenting couple.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to nine years in prison.
Patrick Aron, 60, video store owner
The 60-year-old admitted a charge of raping Gisele but said he had taken part reluctantly, and had instead wanted to have sex with her husband.
He had met Pelicot on a chatroom, where he had said: ‘I’m looking for a pervert accomplice to abuse my wife, she takes sleeping pills and I take advantage.’
Patrick A had replied: ‘OK,’ and came to the couple’s home. He said he felt brainwashed by Pelicot.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to six years in prison.
Ludovick Blemeur, 39, warehouse worker
The warehouse worker was accused of raping Gisele just before New Year’s Eve in 2019, while the Pelicots were on holiday at their daughter’s home near Paris.
While the father-of-one recognised that a sexual encounter had taken place, he told the court he had not had intention to rape.
‘What I did was not premeditated,’ he told the court, adding that he was a regular cannabis user and had been afraid of Pelicot’s reaction if he left the bedroom.
He claimed to have been a ‘collateral victim’ of Pelicot, who he said had used him to be part of his fantasy.
However he later sent Pelicot a message about possibly meeting up again if he was in the area, and another message at new year the following year.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to seven years in prison.
Omar Douiri, 36, mechanic
The married 36-year-old was accused of raping Gisele in November 2017 hours after making contact with her husband on a chatroom.
He said he had not asked any questions and just did what Pelicot said because ‘it was my first threesome and I didn’t know how to do it.’
Asked by Gisele’s lawyer if he accepted the charge of rape he said ‘No, not at all.’
Cyprien Cuveras, 47, a former lorry driver
The father-of-one was accused of raping Gisele at her home in 2017, an accusation he denied.
During cross-examination, he accepted a sexual encounter had taken place and apologised to Gisele before adding that he could ‘not say more than that’.
He refused to use the word rape, telling the court ‘I can’t say that it’s rape’ as he believed that Pelicot had led him to believe that his wife was playing a game in which she pretended to be asleep.
The former lorry driver said that while he ‘did not contest’ that a sexual act had taken place.
‘And the rape?’ the judge then questioned him. The defendant stood silently before eventually responding, ‘I can’t answer.’
Found guilty of aggravated rape.
Paul Grovogui, 31, wants to train as a pastor
The 31-year-old, who told the court he wishes to train as a pastor, was accused of raping Gisele at her home in the middle of the day in 2016 after her breakfast was drugged.
He said at the time he was young, aged 23, and did not see it as rape as he had wanted to ‘have fun’.
But now admitting the charge, Paul G told the court: ”I raped, I accept it, I raped.’
He apologised to Gisele, telling the court: ‘We are not monsters; we are men like any others.’
He was convicted of aggravated rape and sentenced to eight years in prison.
Jean-Pierre Marechal, 63
Father-of-five Marechal is the only defendant not accused of raping or assaulting Gisele.
He instead stood accused of using the same technique to drug and rape his own wife, and organising for Pelicot to rape her with him. He has been described in court as a ‘disciple’ of Pelicot.
One of ten siblings, Marechal reportedly suffered a horrific upbringing with a sexually abusive father who often raped his alcoholic mother who died of liver cirrhosis.
Found guilty of drugging and raping his wife and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Joseph Cocco, 69, pensioner
The 69-year-old was prosecuted for ‘sexual assault in a group’ and not for rape or attempted rape.
‘It was difficult to get an erection,’ he said, adding that he stayed for 10 minutes and then left.
‘Had I known what he was doing to his wife I would have reported him. This is atrocious.’
Found guilty of sexual assault, sentenced to three years in prison – but walks free having already served time in custody.
As the defendants left the court, anger was also directed towards Cocco’s defence attorney as he labelled the baying protesters ‘hysterical knitters’ and told them ‘up yours!’
Saifeddine Ghabi, 37, lorry driver
The married father-of-three stands accused of raping Gisele at her home in November 2019.
He admitted to the court that he had carried out an ‘attempted rape’ but denied a rape had taken place.
‘I recognise that I did not get Madame Pelicot’s consent. I am totally conscious of the seriousness of the facts … But for me, it’s an attempted rape. That is not to minimise it. I’m here for Madame Pelicot to know the truth,’ he told the court.
He said he was addicted to social media and went online to find partners ‘out of boredom’.
Ghabi was found not guilty of rape or attempted rape but was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault. He was not given a prison sentence.
Nizar Hamida, 41
The Tunisian native was charged with rape after visiting the Pelicots’ home on October 10, 2020, just days before his wedding.
He denied the charges, saying that Pelicot told him that ‘his wife would pretend to be asleep, that it was their fantasy’ and that he could not hear Gisele snoring over the sound of the television.
The 41-year-old has eight previous convictions, including for domestic violence against two ex-girlfriends.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to ten years in prison.
Charly Arbo, 30, vineyard worker
The 30-year-old was accused of six counts of rape. Prosecutors requested a sentence of 16 years for him.
He has denied rape, saying Pelicot, whom he had met online, had told him that his wife would be ‘pretending to be asleep’.
He said: ‘I was told it was a scenario in which she was asleep. In that scenario, she was consenting.
‘For me, I didn’t intend to rape. I didn’t want to rape her, I didn’t want to do something bad to that family.’
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Boris Moulin, 37, transport worker
The 37-year-old denied the charge of rape, claiming that he, like Gisele, was a victim of her husband.
The prosecution contested that ‘at no time did he seek or obtain Gisele Pelicot’s consent’, adding that ‘in reality, he was pleased with the situation presented to him’ by Pelicot.
Found guilty of aggravated rape, sentenced to eight years in prison.
Nicolas Francois, 43, journalist
The 43-year-old freelance journalist, admitted he had ‘lacked judgement and strength of character,’ but also said: ‘I contest the intentionality of the rape.’
He said he went to Mazan on October 10, 2020, to have sex with Pelicot, adding that he performed fellatio on him. He also penetrated Gisele digitally and performed an anulingus on her.
Found guilty of aggravated rape and child pornography possession, sentenced to eight years in prison and banned from working with children for life.
Philippe Leleu, 62, gardener
The defendant met Pelicot online and organised to meet him on June 7, 2018.
He denied having had any intention of raping Gisele Pelicot, saying he ‘only’ penetrated her with his fingers.
Found guilty of attempted rape, sentenced to five years, two of which are suspended.
Hassan Ouamou
Ouamou remains on the run and was the only defendant not present in the courtroom.
He was found guilty in absentia of aggravated rape and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
