Gisèle Pelicot was in court to look 51 of her abusers in the eye and see them convicted for a total of 428 years.
After bravely choosing to waive her right to anonymity, the grandmother became a global feminist icon during a gruelling months-long public trial which horrified the world.
She watched her former husband of 50 years Dominique Pelicot be found guilty on Thursday and sentenced to 20 years in prison after drugging and raping her for a decade, and inviting others to join in the attack.
But without her courage and the intervention of a supermarket security guard, the horrors of the trial which has shaped France’s legal system and shocked the nation to its core may never have come to light.
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The now-closed ‘Coco’ website hosted chatrooms venerating sexual violence and was not even on the dark web.
Founded in 2003 by software engineer Isaac Steidl, the site asked users to confirm that they were over 18, but they could quickly change their age once they gained access to the platform and chat with an invented username.
Over ten years Pelicot spoke to dozens of men online and asked them to rape his unconscious wife by posting: “I’m looking for a pervert accomplice to abuse my sleeping wife.”
Pelicot claimed on the forum that he and his wife shared a fetish for men having sex with her while she was asleep, not saying that she had no knowledge of his abuse.
During the trial some defendants claimed Gisèle’s ex-husband tricked them, others said he forced them to have sexual intercourse with her and that they were terrified. Others still argue they believed she was consenting or that her then-husband’s consent was sufficient.
Pelicot denied misleading the men, saying they knew exactly what they were doing.
Called “a den of predators” in France, human rights organisations, LGBTQ+ activists, and child protection associations all raised concerns over it.
After being involved in 23,000 reports of criminal activity with more than 480 victims, the website was finally shut down in June this year after France’s national anti-organised crime authority Junalco used a change in French law to hold administrators liable for activities on their sites.
Police believe 72 men had gone to the house to rape and abuse Gisèle, but they were not able to identify them all.
