‘Mr. Everyman’: Who are the 51 ‘ordinary’ men convicted in France’s mass rape trial?

The case sent shockwaves through France and indeed the world. A husband would drug his wife with enough anti-anxiety medication to knock her out, then bring another man into their home while he videoed the man raping her.

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Not just once but an estimated 200 times over nine years, involving at least 50 other men.

The victim, Gisèle Pelicot, 72, wanted the charges against her now ex-husband and the others to be heard in open court, and gave up her right to anonymity. Three months of courtroom evidence horrified France, and raised Pelicot’s status from victim to feminist icon.

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“I want you to know that we share the same fight,” she said in a message to other sexual assault victims as she left the court in the southern French city of Avignon on Dec. 19, where sentences ranging from three to 20 years had been imposed on the defendants.

Dominique Pelicot, also 72, was given a 20-year sentence. He won’t be able to ask for parole until he has served three-quarters of his sentence.

“I am a rapist, like everyone else in this room,” he said in open court at the beginning of the trial. Some of his co-defendants proclaimed their guilt, while others contested the charges against them. The verdicts were decided by secret ballot, cast by a panel of five judges.

Dominique Pelicot testified that he developed a routine of secretly sedating Gisèle by putting crushed anti-anxiety medication into her food and drinks — enough to keep her unconscious for seven hours. Then he recruited strangers through an online chatroom, which was shut down in June by a court order. He invited them to their home and other places he and Gisèle were staying. He instructed the men not to wake her by warming their hands on a radiator and telling them not to smell of aftershave or smoke.

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Gisèle Pelicot had no idea what had been happening to her until she was approached by police. The only indication she had before that was unexplainable symptoms she had been experiencing: memory loss, blackouts, extreme fatigue, an inflamed cervix, pain in her abdomen.

Then, in September 2020, Dominique Pelicot was arrested for trying to film under women’s skirts at a grocery store. Police seized his electronic devices and found thousands of videos and photos showing his wife being sexually assaulted by different men on several separate occasions.

Who was charged?

Prosecutors charged as many suspects as they could find from the videos. Forty-eight men were charged with rape, one with attempted rape and one with sexual assault. Some men were accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot on one occasion, while others were accused of up to six instances. About 20 of the men who appeared in his videos have yet to be identified.

About 15 of the accused acknowledged guilt at trial. Some apologized directly to Gisèle Pelicot during the court proceedings. Others argued that they believed she had consented as part of a couple’s sex game, or that her husband’s consent was sufficient. Some accused Dominique Pelicot of manipulating them or pressuring them to participate. “I didn’t put handcuffs on anyone to force them to come,” he told the court in response.

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Why were the accused men known as ‘Mr. Everyman’?

The men appeared before the court in groups of five to seven over 10 weeks — offering only small glimpses into each man’s life.

The French media dubbed them “Monsieur Tout-le-monde” — Mr. Everyman — because of how ordinary the men are. They are short, tall, flabby, lean, clean-shaven, bearded, bald and pony-tailed. All but 14 were employed in jobs that reflect the spectrum of middle- and working-class in rural France: truck drivers, carpenters and trade workers, a prison guard, a nurse, an IT expert, a journalist. They range in age from 27 to 74. Just over two-thirds have children.

There are few common denominators: Eighteen suffered from addiction to alcohol or drugs; the rest did not. Around a dozen reported being sexually abused as children.
Most lived in south-eastern France within a 60 km radius of where the Pelicots lived. Six had previous convictions for domestic violence, and two had convictions for sexual violence. A total of 23 had a criminal record for offences such as drunk-driving and possession of drugs.

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What they did

Here is a list of the convicted rapists, with their age, profession and what they did to get convicted:

Butcher, 54

Found guilty of raping Gisèle Pelicot in her home in September 2019 and sentenced to eight years in prison. His partner, the mother of his children, was on holiday at the time of the rape. He said he had been sexually frustrated in his marriage and had gone on to the online chatroom. He told the court he had a violent childhood and an alcoholic father, who he said would wait outside school with a meat cleaver to threaten him.

Supermarket worker, 44

A worker at the Pelicots’ local supermarket, he was a married father of three when he made contact with Dominique Pelicot. He admitted raping Gisèle Pelicot at her home on Dec. 2, 2018, but said he had not intended to commit rape. The court heard that Dominique Pelicot had previously brought an unsuspecting Gisèle Pelicot to the supermarket so he could see if the accused was attracted to her. He was found guilty of rape and sentenced to eight years in prison.

Firefighter/Pizzeria owner, 72

He had been married for 25 years and had two children. He was found guilty of rape and sentenced to five years in prison, three of them suspended. He denied rape. He said he had been “naive” and thought that Gisèle Pelicot would wake up and it was a game by the couple.

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Truck driver, 63

A former truck driver for an agricultural cooperative in southern France, he was not accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot. Instead, he was found guilty and sentenced to 12 years for using the same technique to drug and rape his own wife and organizing for Pelicot to rape her with him. He described himself in court as a “disciple” of Pelicot.

Soldier, 26

He was the youngest man on trial and was on Thursday found guilty of rape and sentenced to 10 years in prison.He was 22 at the time of his rape of Gisèle Pelicot on two separate visits to her home in 2019 and 2020. He was absent for the premature birth of his daughter on the night he was accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot for the first time in November 2019.

Tiler, 39

A father of two, he was convicted of the attempted rape of Gisèle Pelicot a few days before his then girlfriend’s birthday in October 2019. He was sentenced to five years in prison.

Carer, 43

A married father who had given up part-time work to care for his disabled son, he was found guilty of raping Gisèle Pelicot in June 2019. He was sentenced to nine years in prison.

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No stated profession, 39

He had 16 previous convictions ranging from armed robbery and drug dealing to domestic violence and sexual assault of a minor and was handed another for the rape of Gisèle Pelicot in August 2018. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Former baker, 53

He had worked as baker for 25 years. He was found guilty of raping Gisèle Pelicot with Dominique Pelicot on Oct. 3, 2020 and sentenced to seven years in prison. He said he was high on MDMA at the time and thought it was a game with a married couple.

Farm worker, 37

The married father of two had two domestic violence convictions and on Thursday was found guilty of the attempted rape of Gisèle Pelicot. He was sentenced to six years in prison. He told the court: “As the husband had given me permission, in my mind she agreed to it.”

Builder, 43

A builder, former soldier and father of five, he lived on the next street to the Pelicots and was found guilty of raping Gisèle Pelicot. He was sentenced to nine years in prison. He was the only one of the defendants whom she recognised when she was shown video evidence by police. “Things were going badly with my ex-wife, I was looking for love, an encounter to calm myself,” he told the court.

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Refrigeration specialist, 61

The father of three was convicted of rape and the possession of child abuse images and given a 12-year prison sentence. Hundreds of images were found on a USB stick after his arrest on suspicion of the rape of Gisèle Pelicot on Aug. 21, 2020. He told the court: “After I leave prison, I’d like to create an association to get men like me to understand that consent is important. I’d go to swingers’ clubs and say: ‘Don’t forget to get consent.’”

Former grocery store worker, 46

The father of three was one of the few on trial to admit the charge of raping Gisèle Pelicot with the knowledge that she had been drugged. He was convicted by the court on Thursday of rape and sentenced to 13 years in prison. He went to the Pelicots’ home six times between March and June 2020, during the first COVID lockdown in France, to rape Gisèle Pelicot.

Former builder, 54

He turned to alcohol when his 18-year-old son died in a road collision, he was found guilty of raping Gisèle Pelicot and sentenced to eight years in prison. He had been an inpatient on a psychiatric ward and suffering from depression when investigators identified him as a suspect in 2020. He said he thought Dominique Pelicot may have drugged him, and that he had been manipulated and brainwashed by Pelicot.

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Former building site manager, 34

He was convicted last year of the rapes of three former partners in a different trial and is serving a 14-year jail sentence. On Thursday, he was found guilty of the rape of Gisèle Pelicot in March 2014 and was sentenced to six years in prison. The night he raped Gisèle Pelicot, his new girlfriend was nine months pregnant and gave birth 10 days later. He admitted to court experts that he had mistreated his pregnant girlfriend and called her a whore.

Former roofer, 52

Born on the French Indian Ocean island of Réunion, he was convicted of rape and sentenced to eight years in prison. He had been in a nine-year relationship when he drove for two and a half hours from Lyon to rape Gisèle Pelicot in her bed on the night of Sept. 21, 2018. The court heard he had regularly sought encounters with couples for more than a decade and had paid sex workers but said “it felt dirty”.

Former anaesthesia nurse, 55

He also worked as a community nurse. He was found guilty of the rape of Gisèle Pelicot at her home on a Saturday night in June 2019 and sentenced to eight years in jail. He said he had not known Gisèle Pelicot was sedated. Asked in court how, as a trained anaesthesia nurse, he had not seen that Gisèle Pelicot was unconscious, he said he had thought she was pretending to be dead “but never that she’d been drugged.”

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Former factory worker, 60

He admitted to the charge of raping Gisèle Pelicot but said he took part reluctantly because he was gay and had wanted an encounter with Dominique Pelicot. He was convicted of rape and sentenced to six years in prison.

Former long-distance truck driver, 68

The divorced father of two said he went to Dominique Pelicot’s house “exclusively for a homosexual encounter” with him. He was found guilty of raping Gisèle Pelicot on Jan. 30, 2019. The court heard he had been raped when he was 16.

Computer expert, 40

A man with two university degrees, he was found guilty of rape and of possession of child abuse images. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He denied raping Gisèle Pelicot on June 27, 2020, and said he downloaded the images “inadvertently.”

Carpenter, 42

He was convicted of raping Gisèle Pelicot at her home on two occasions in October 2019 and January 2020. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He had a previous conviction of domestic violence against an ex-partner in 2021, for which he was given a six-month suspended sentence.

Truck driver, 74

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A divorced grandfather is the oldest of those convicted. He was found guilty of raping Gisèle Pelicot in May 2017 and was sentenced to six years in prison. He said he had always thought that rape was “something violent … done by a madman, a brutal thing,” and that this encounter had instead been a “sexual game.”

Truck driver, 45

He was given a 13-year prison sentence for raping Gisèle Pelicot on six different occasions. Police found video evidence of five visits to the Pelicots’ house. He said he was contacted via the chatroom in February 2015 by Dominique Pelicot, who was looking for a man as a “gift” for his wife “for Valentine’s Day.”

Former discotheque worker, 70

In 1999, he was sentenced to five years in prison for raping his 17-year-old daughter and was sentenced to eight years in prison for the rape of Gisèle Pelicot at the holiday cottage of the Pelicots’ daughter, Caroline, on the island of Île-de-Ré.

Plumber and former champion boxer, 54

Married for more than 30 years with three children, he was found guilty of raping Gisèle Pelicot at the couple’s home in June 2019. He was sentenced to eight years in jail. He denied rape and told the court: “I’m not a rapist, but if I had wanted to rape I wouldn’t have chosen a 57-year-old woman, I would have chosen a pretty one.”

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Unemployed, 40

A separated father of four who had convictions for domestic violence, burglary and death threats and had served time in prison, was found guilty of rape and sentenced to nine years in prison. He said, as a boy, he had been a victim of sexual abuse by an old man he had met in the park who took him to his van.

Transport worker, 36

The father of one was found guilty of raping Gisèle Pelicot in October 2018 and sentenced to eight years in jail.

Truck driver, 47

He described himself as a daily consumer of cannabis and was convicted of raping Gisèle Pelicot at her home in November 2018 and sentenced to nine years in jail. He told the court he had previously had encounters with couples he met via websites.

Former truck driver, 43

The father of one, was found guilty of raping Gisèle Pelicot in her bed in 2017. He was sentenced to six years in jail. The court heard he grew up in children’s homes and foster families and had suffered from alcohol addiction as an adult.

Prison guard, 34

He was convicted of raping Gisèle Pelicot in her bed in November 2019. He was sentenced to seven years in prison. He said he had sold drugs on the website where Dominique Pelicot sought men to abuse his wife.

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Painter and decorator, 31

He had seven previous convictions ranging from possession of drugs to driving offences, he was found guilty of raping Gisèle Pelicot in June 2017, when she had been drugged unconscious. He was sentenced to eight years in prison. He said that at the time he was struggling with the loss of his baby daughter at seven months’ pregnancy due to a heart defect.

Delivery driver, 32

He was previously convicted of nine offences including driving without a licence, burglary and receiving stolen goods and was convicted of raping Gisèle Pelicot in December 2019 and sentenced to seven years in prison.

Mirror-maker, 46

A father of four, he admitted raping Gisèle Pelicot in her bedroom on two occasions in 2018, knowing she had been drugged unconscious. He was given a 10-year prison sentence. He thought Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had consented on her behalf. He told a psychologist after his arrest that he thought the definition of rape was something that “happens in the street.”

Electrician, 55

A self-described “jovial” guy who once trained youth football teams, he was found guilty of rape and sentenced to eight years in jail.

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Former canteen worker, 47

He admitted rape, saying he went to the Pelicots’ home twice and raped Gisèle Pelicot when she was comatose. He was sentenced to eight years in jail.

Former forklift truck driver, 63

He was found guilty of raping Gisèle Pelicot on six occasions over six months between 2019 and 2020 and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He denied rape, saying Dominique Pelicot “invited me in” and that a husband’s consent had been enough. He said he went to the Pelicots’ home the first time because he felt “lonely. Christmas was approaching and I was going to be on my own again. I was looking for friendship.”

Software technician, 50

He was found guilty of rape and of possessing child abuse imagery. He was sentenced to 12 years in jail. He raped Gisèle Pelicot at her home in October 2017. The court heard that he also procured from Dominique Pelicot sedatives with the aim of drugging his girlfriend at the time. He said he did not go through with it. The court heard that at the age of 13 he was raped by an uncle.

Fled the country, 30

Tried in absentia for raping Gisèle Pelicot in her bedroom in March 2018. After he left France, an international warrant for his arrest was issued. He was sentenced by the court to 12 years.

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Former soldier in French foreign legion, 44

He became a restaurant manager but was unemployed when he went to the Pelicots’ home twice, in 2016 and 2018. He was found guilty of the rape of Gisèle Pelicot and sentenced to nine years. He told the court he felt tricked by Dominique Pelicot, and had believed he was going to have an encounter with a consenting couple with “fantasies.”

Warehouse worker, 39

He was found guilty of raping Gisèle Pelicot one night between Christmas and the new year in 2019 when the Pelicots were on holiday at their daughter’s home in the Paris area. He was sentenced to seven years in prison. The court heard as a child he had been a victim of a notorious sex offender.

Mechanic, 36

Married, he was convicted of the rape of Gisèle Pelicot at her home in November 2017 and was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Profession not stated, 31

He was found guilty of raping Gisèle Pelicot at her home one lunchtime in 2016 after Dominique Pelicot had drugged her at breakfast. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison. A father of one, he has previous convictions in France for theft and forgery, as well as domestic violence.

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Long-distance truck driver, 37

He was accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot but was found guilty of the lesser charge of sexual assault, for which he was handed a three-year prison sentence. In court, he admitted to what he called “attempted rape” but denied that a rape took place.

Vineyard worker, 30

He raped Gisèle Pelicot on six occasions between 2016 and 2020, and on Thursday he was sentenced to 13 years in prison. The first time, he was 22 and Gisèle Pelicot was 64. He and Dominique Pelicot were accused of raping her on the night of her 66th birthday. A court psychiatrist said his “very intense use of pornography” from his early teenage years – including pornographic scenarios about mothers and older women – influenced his objectification of women.

Firefighter, 57

He was identified from the top half of the fire service uniform he wore during his rape of Gisèle Pelicot in her bed in January 2019 and was given a prison sentence of nine years. He said that in his extensive experience on the swinging scene, it was always the man who organized things and made an approach on behalf of the wife.

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Hairdresser, 41

He was found guilty of raping Gisèle Pelicot in October 2020 and was sentenced to 10 years in jail. He has previous convictions for domestic violence.

Freelance journalist, 42

He was found guilty of raping Gisèle Pelicot in her bed in January 2018 and also convicted of possessing child abuse imagery. He was sentenced to eight years in jail. The only child of public sector workers, he said he had a pampered upbringing, with music tuition and tennis lessons.

Retired sales manager, 69

He was a karate coach for the police for 25 years, experienced with the swingers scene. He was found guilty of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot and sentenced to three years in jail, two of them suspended.

Transport company worker, 37

He was convicted of the rape of Gisèle Pelicot at her home in January 2020 and sentenced to eight years in prison. Before he got there, he had three joints, two lines of cocaine and several glasses of whisky, he told the court. When he arrived he thought Gisèle Pelicot was drunk.

Gardener, 62

He lived with his mother and described himself as shy. He was single and said he regularly paid for sex. He was found guilty of raping Gisèle Pelicot in her bed in June 2018 and sentenced to five years in prison, two of them suspended.

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