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Dominique Pelicot invited men to rape his wife, whom he had drugged. The French media call them “Mr. Every Man” because they come from such ordinary backgrounds.
The last of 50 men to be cross-examined in the rape of a drugged and naked Gisèle Pelicot stood before the judges in a white sweater and jeans.
Philippe Leleu: Single, no children, a dedicated weight lifter and professional gardener who, at 62, was nearing retirement when the police came knocking. His mother opened the door — they live beside one another, and since her stroke 10 years ago, they dine together and he spends most nights at her home.
“I never imagined I’d come before a court for him, never, never,” she told the judges recently.
Yet here he was, among the accused, standing in the crowded courtroom in the southern city of Avignon, part of a mass rape trial, now in its 12th week, that has deeply shaken France.
Ms. Pelicot’s ex-husband of 50 years, Dominique Pelicot, has pleaded guilty to drugging her for almost a decade to rape her, and offering her unconscious body up to strangers he met online. Prosecutors on Monday requested the maximum sentence for him: 20 years in prison.
He’s on trial with 50 other men — all but one charged with aggravated rape, attempted rape or sexual assault of Ms. Pelicot. The French media have dubbed them “Monsieur Tout-le-monde” — Mr. Every Man — because of how varied the men are, and how ordinary.
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 rural France: truck drivers, carpenters and trade workers, a prison guard, a nurse, an I.T. expert working for a bank, a local journalist.