{"id":39673,"date":"2024-12-20T22:24:10","date_gmt":"2024-12-21T03:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/five-unanswered-questions-from-the-pelicot-trial\/20\/12\/2024\/"},"modified":"2024-12-20T22:24:10","modified_gmt":"2024-12-21T03:24:10","slug":"five-unanswered-questions-from-the-pelicot-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/five-unanswered-questions-from-the-pelicot-trial\/20\/12\/2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Five unanswered questions from the Pelicot trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

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French rape survivor Gis\u00e8le Pelicot walked out of a court in southern France for the last time on Thursday after her ex-husband was jailed for 20 years for drugging and raping her, and inviting dozens of strangers to also abuse her over nearly a decade.<\/p>\n

Dominique Pelicot, 72, was found guilty of all charges by a judge in Avignon. He was on trial with 50 other men, all of whom were found guilty of at least one charge, although their jail terms were less than what prosecutors had demanded.<\/p>\n

Although the trial is over, there are still questions lingering over the Pelicot case and what happens next.<\/p>\n

1. What will Gis\u00e8le Pelicot do now?<\/h2>\n

When she climbed the steps of the Avignon courthouse for the first time in September, no one knew Gis\u00e8le Pelicot’s name. Over the course of the next 15 weeks, her fame as a rape victim who refused to be ashamed of what had been done to her grew vertiginously.<\/p>\n

By the time she left the tribunal on Thursday<\/a>, crowds of hundreds were chanting her name and her picture was on the front pages of newspapers worldwide.<\/p>\n

She is now perhaps one of the best-known women in France. This means that although she has changed her name, it will be impossible for her to return to the anonymity that served her so well as she tried to rebuild a life following the revelation of her husband’s crimes.<\/p>\n

Gis\u00e8le is not the first person whose unimaginable suffering has turned her into an icon. At great personal cost, she has become the symbol of a fight she never chose. It seems unlikely, then, that she will want to become an outspoken activist against gender violence, or a prominent feminist figure. Rather, she may go back to what she has said has always given her solace: music, long walks and chocolate \u2013 as well as her seven grandchildren.<\/p>\n

“At the start of the trial she said: ‘If I last two weeks, that will be a lot.’ In the end, she made it to three and a half months,” her lawyer Stephane Babonneau said. “Now, she is at peace, and relieved it’s all over.”<\/p>\n

2. What really happened to Caroline?<\/h2>\n

Days after Dominique Pelicot’s crimes came to light, his daughter Caroline Darian was summoned to the police station and shown photos of an apparently unconscious woman dressed in unfamiliar lingerie. Later, she said her life had “stopped” when she realised she was looking at photos of herself.<\/p>\n

Her father has always denied touching her, but Caroline \u2013 whose anguish and devastation were apparent in many court sessions \u2013 has said she would never believe him and accused him of looking at her “with incestuous eyes”.<\/p>\n

But the lack of proof of the abuse Caroline is convinced was inflicted on her has led her to say she is “the forgotten victim” of the trial. That notion has visibly seeped into her relationship with her mother. In her memoir \u2013 published after her father’s arrest \u2013 she accused Gis\u00e8le of not showing her enough support, implicitly choosing to side with her rapist ex-husband over her daughter.<\/p>\n

Although Gis\u00e8le and her children have always sat next to one another in court, often whispering huddled together, there have been signs of the toll the trial has taken on their relationship.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Caroline’s brother David highlighted \u2013 as he has done before \u2013 that the trial had not just been about Gis\u00e8le but about their whole “annihilated family”.<\/p>\n

“Us children felt forgotten,” he said. “Very honestly I feel that while our lawyers did a remarkable job on the defence of our mother, we were a little bit less taken into account.”<\/p>\n

In her memoir, Caroline lamented Gis\u00e8le’s “denial as a coping mechanism”.<\/p>\n

“Because of my father,” she wrote, “I am now losing my mother.”<\/p>\n

3. How many defendants will appeal?<\/h2>\n

Apart from Dominique, all of the jail terms handed down to the defendants were less than what prosecutors had demanded.<\/p>\n

Several defence lawyers were visibly satisfied, meaning it is unlikely they will encourage their clients to appeal against their sentences. A man called Jean-Pierre Mar\u00e9chal got 12 years \u2013 five less than prosecutors had asked \u2013 and his lawyer Patrick Gontard told the BBC it was “out of the question” he would appeal.<\/p>\n

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