Dominique Pelicot will not appeal against conviction for drugging and raping ex-wife
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Lawyer says he wishes to spare Gisèle Pelicot a new ordeal after marathon trial convicted all 51 accused. Dominique Pelicot will not appeal against his conviction for drugging and raping his wife and inviting strangers to rape her, his lawyer has said.
Béatrice Zavarro said the former electrician, 72, who was jailed for the maximum 20 years this month, wished to spare his now ex-wife, Gisèle Pelicot, a new ordeal but admitted there was also the risk a new trial in front of a public jury could mean a longer prison sentence.
Pelicot and the 50 others who were all found guilty of rape or sexual assault after a three-and-a-half-month trial have until midnight on Monday to lodge an appeal. At least 17 are believed to have decided to contest their conviction and more may follow.
Gisèle Pelicot, 72, a retired logistics manager, believes she may have been raped more than 200 times by her husband and other men between 2011 and 2020, when Dominique Pelicot was finally caught after filming up the skirts of female shoppers in a supermarket near the couple’s home in the Provençal town of Mazan. Detectives subsequently found tens of thousands of videos of the abuse on his phone and a hard drive.
On Monday, Zavarro said Dominique Pelicot had decided not to appeal against his conviction because to do so would “force Gisèle into a new ordeal and new confrontations, which [he] rejects”. Appealing against the guilty judgment, when Pelicot admitted the charges, would involve “running an unnecessary risk”, she added, as the accusations could be made more serious in the appeal court, where the case would be held in front of a public jury, potentially leading to a longer prison term.
