Thibaut Rey, 38, spotted the serial rapist taking images of three women at the LeClerc shopping centre and confronted him, holding his phone until police arrived to make their arrest. “Pelicot didn’t resist. He froze with terror. I saw the fear in his eyes,” he said.

A court sentenced Mr. Pelicot to 20 years after he admitted to drugging and raping his wife, Gisèle, for nearly a decade, and inviting strangers to join him. The case has made her a feminist hero.

Dominique Pelicot has been given a 20-year prison sentence after being found guilty of the aggravated rape of his ex-wife Gisèle Pelicot by a court in the French city Avignon on Thursday, in a trial that horrified France and the world.

Gisele Pelicot speaks to the press as she leaves the courtroom, in the Avignon courthouse, southern France, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. A French court found Dominique Pelicot guilty of drugging and raping his wife, Gisèle, for almost a decade.

Gisèle Pelicot spoke of her "very difficult ordeal" after 51 men were convicted Thursday in the drugging-and-rape trial that riveted France and turned her into an icon.

Pelicot became an icon for many women in France and beyond after her courageous demand that all the evidence be heard in open court.