Gisele Pelicot has spoken after her ex-husband was amongst 51 males who’ve been sentenced for a sequence of rapes and intercourse assaults towards her.
Exterior the courtroom in Avignon, southern France, she stated: “This case was a very difficult test for me”.
“I’m thinking first and foremost of my three children [and] my grandchildren because they are the future… for them, I wanted to really put this struggle forward.”
“I’d like to express my gratitude, my deepest gratitude to all the individuals who have supported me throughout this… this really gave me strength to come back day after day for this long trial”.
She stated she wished to be open and trustworthy “to ensure that society could actually see what was happening and I never have regretted this decision”.
“I now have faith in our capacity to collectively take hold of a future in which everybody, women, men, can live together in harmony, in respect and mutual understanding.”
When requested concerning the sentences she responded: “I respect the courts and their decision”.
Her former husband Dominique Pelicot, 72, acquired 20 years – the utmost sentence out there for aggravated rape.
He admitted drugging and raping her and alluring dozens of strangers he met on-line to do the identical at their residence.
Nearly all of the 50 different males had been discovered responsible of aggravated rape and acquired between three and 15 years.
Gisele Pelicot regarded straight at each defendant as they stood within the courtroom and had been discovered responsible, then sentenced.
The three-month trial has turned Gisele Pelicot right into a feminist icon.
She stated she was preventing for “all those people around the world, women and men, who are victims of sexual violence”.
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