Vincent McAviney: Europe Correspondent on the sentencing of the men involved in France's mass rape trial

Guilty verdicts have been reached in France's mass rape trial.  

Dominique Pelicot's been jailed for 20 years after drugging and raping his wife Gisele and inviting dozens of strangers to do the same for over nearly a decade.  

He was also found guilty of taking indecent images of his daughter and his two daughters-in-law.  

Of the other 50 men on trial, 46 were found guilty of rape, two of attempted rape, and two of sexual assault. 

Europe Correspondent Vincent McAviney told Andrew Dickens that there’s been some disappointment around the sentences for the other men, as they received sentences of between 5 and 8 years.  

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
From Europe. Vincent Megaviny, Good morning and Merry Christmas.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Good morning, Merry Christmas.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
All right, Obviously the senators handed down in the case
of Gazelle Pilico and her husband received the maximum twenty
years sentence. It's not a surprise for dragging his wife,
raping her and inviting dozens of strangers. But there's some
disappointment about the sentences for the fifty other men, aren't they.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, that's right. This horrific case as grip not only
France but the world really and it came to its
conclusion after three months this morning. So, as you mentioned,
Chazelle Pelico's husband, Dominique Pelico, received a twenty year sentence,
the maximum sentence for what he did. He's also under
investigation for another alleged rape and potentially alleged murder as well.

(00:42):
And then there was a trial of fifty other men
of the seventy two that says believed to have he's
had abusing her that's been documented in all this video
and horrific footage. The fifty that they were able to identify,
they have been given sentences sort of between five and eight,
so not the maximum in the categories that they were

(01:02):
going for So there is some disappointment in that we
don't know whether some of them were. They will appeal.
But miss Perico addressed France on leaving saying she regretted
lose giving up her anonymity to come forward. She said
it was right to transfer the shame to these men.
It was quite an extraordinary scene outside the court, the
world's press there, all of these, you know, men that

(01:25):
had abused her, was sort of trapesing into the court
in the morning just before she went in. So some
extraordinary strength on display from this pedico.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
She was amazing. She was amazing. But most of these men,
the fifty men on trial, denied that what they did
was right because she was unconscious and therefore did not
know that they were raping her. And that means France
is having this huge discussion now about the legal definition
of rape and it's just terrific really. So we'll move
on to Vledimir Putin, who just did the most epic

(01:56):
end of year press conference more than four hours nearly five.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah, I mean, I think we can use a press
conference somewhat in air quotes. There were questions from journalists there,
but then there's also sort of questions planted somewhat by
sort of callers allegedly calling in freely from around Russia.
But it's never quite been clear who these people are.
But he did take questions from the press that were there,

(02:22):
including some Western journalists. Those sort of headlines were that,
you know, he says that he should have gone into
Ukraine earlier, and that he admitted that more preparation was
needed for what he's still calling his special military operation.
He said he hasn't arranged any meetings yet with a
president elect Donald Trump, despite all the signals that they'll
probably be getting around the negotiation table next year to

(02:45):
try and come to some kind of settlement on the
Ukraine War, though they said. He said though that he
will be meeting Bashar Ala Sad, the deposed Syrian president,
now in Moscow. And he also sort of reflected on
the fact that he says it wasn't a loss for Russia,
it was simply a complicated situation, and that he's not

(03:08):
spoken to Assad yet, but he expects to do so
at some point.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
And look, you just said that at a minute and
it took him for in a bit hours. Thank you
so much, vinceus Megavinni, enjoy your Christmas and enjoy your family.
And not only that, Fladimir Putin also took the opportunity
in this four and a half hours to address domestic issues,
including telephone scammers, the country's low birth rate, and problems
young people are facing when trying to get a mortgage,
the same problems all over the world.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
to News Talks it be from five am weekdays, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.