Dominique Pelicot, the ex-husband of Gisèle Pelicot, was convicted on Thursday of aggravated rape and other charges after admitting to drugging and raping Ms. Pelicot for almost a decade, and arranging for dozens of strangers he met online to abuse her unconscious body.
He received the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The 50 other men, most charged with aggravated rape, who were tried alongside him, were also convicted.
Despite Mr. Pelicot’s guilty plea, under the French legal system a trial was held for society to understand the truth of what happened, experts said.
Here is a timeline of events in the case, based on court records and testimony.
1973
The Pelicots marry, two years after meeting. “We were so in love, we didn’t want to be apart,” Ms. Pelicot told the court at the trial.
1974
The first of their three children is born. They settle on the outskirts of Paris, where Ms. Pelicot, now 72, is the family’s main breadwinner as a manager in a big public company, and Mr. Pelicot, also now 72, works at different jobs, including as a real estate agent.
2010
Mr. Pelicot is caught filming women under their skirts in a shopping mall near Paris, using a miniature camera concealed in a pen. He is arrested and fined 100 euros for “capturing indecent images.” Ms. Pelicot learned of the arrest only in 2020 from an investigative judge, in the lead-up to the current trial. “If I had been informed, maybe I would have left him, or not,” she told the court. “But I would have been more attentive.”