Gisele Pelicot’s ex-husband will not appeal against his 20-year prison sentence

The ex-husband of Gisele Pelicot will not appeal against his 20-year prison sentence for drugging and raping her and allowing dozens of other men to also rape her while she was unconscious, in a case that revolted France, his lawyer has said.

Dominique Pelicot wants to spare his ex-wife the ordeal of another trial, lawyer Beatrice Zavarro said in an interview with broadcaster France Info.

She said 17 of the 50 other men also found guilty this month after a trial that lasted more than three months have decided to appeal against their sentences.

The court found Dominique Pelicot guilty of rape and all other charges against him and sentenced him to 20 years in prison, which was the maximum possible.

At the age of 72, he could spend the rest of his life behind bars.

He will not be eligible to request early release until he has served at least two thirds of the sentence.

Ms Zavarro said: “He has decided not to appeal because he believes it would be a new ordeal and new confrontations for his (former) wife.”

The trial riveted France and and spurred a national reckoning about the blight of rape culture.

Dominique Pelicot laced his wife’s food and drink with tranquilisers to render her unconscious. He then invited strangers he met online to take part in sordid rape and abuse fantasies that he acted out with them and filmed in the couple’s retirement home in the small Provence town of Mazan and elsewhere.

Gisele Pelicot’s courage during the bruising trial and her appalling ordeal, inflicted on the retired power company worker in what she had thought was a loving marriage, galvanised campaigners and triggered calls for tougher measures to stamp out rape culture.

She waived her right to anonymity as a survivor of sexual abuse and successfully pushed for the hearings and shocking evidence – including her ex-husband’s homemade videos of the rapes – to be heard in open court, insisting that shame should fall on her abusers, not her.