Gisèle Pelicot thanks backers after ex-husband and his 50 co-defendants convicted in rape trial

Pelicot’s ex-husband and all but one of his co-defendants were convicted of sexually assaulting her over a period of nearly a decade after he’d knocked her unconscious by lacing her food and drink with drugs

Gisele Pelicot speaks to the press as she leaves the courtroom, in the Avignon courthouse, southern France, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

Gisèle Pelicot spoke of her “very difficult ordeal” after 51 men were convicted Thursday in the drugging-and-rape trial that riveted France and turned her into an icon, expressing support for other victims whose cases don’t get such attention and “whose stories remain untold.” 

“I want you to know that we share the same fight,” she said in her first words after the court in the southern French city of Avignon handed down prison sentences ranging from three to 20 years in the shocking case that spurred a national reckoning about the blight of rape culture.