Gisèle Pelicot thanks supporters in a speech outside court, after her ex-husband Dominique Pelicot was jailed for 20 years for drugging her and recruiting strangers to rape her
Pelicot, who waived her right to anonymity, says she never regretted making the trial public "so society could see what was happening"
Fifty other men have been sentenced alongside Dominique, in a mass rape trial which has shocked France
Gisèle looked at each man as he was asked to stand, both during the verdicts and sentencings, our correspondent in court reports
Warning: This page contains distressing details
Laura Gozzi
Reporting from Avignon
Jacques Cubeau is found guilty of aggravated rape.
Nicolas Francois is found guilty of aggravated rape and having child abuse imagery.
Lionel Rodriguez is found guilty of aggravated rape.
Laura Gozzi
Reporting from Avignon
Gisèle and her children are just sat on the bench looking at the defendants, resting their heads on the wall.
Three more verdicts have just been read out.
Christian Lescole has been found guilty of aggravated rape. He was acquitted of having child abuse imagery.
Cyrille Delville was found guilty of aggravated rape.
Florian Rocca has been found guilty of aggravated rape.
Charly Arbo has been found guilty of aggravated rape. At 30 years old, he was one of the youngest on trial.
Laura Gozzi
Reporting from Avignon
Jean-Pierre Marechal is the second man to receive a verdict – he is found guilty of attempted rape and aggravated rape of his wife, as well as drugging her.
The 63-year-old earlier admitted to following Dominique Pelicot’s lead, drugging his own wife for five years, raping her and inviting Dominique to rape her too.
He has since said that was he did to his wife was “atrocious” and admitted: “I was a rapist, but I’m not anymore.”
Dominique Pelicot, the ex-husband of Gisèle Pelicot, is found guilty of aggravated rape.
He is also found guilty of the attempted aggravated rape of the wife of one of the co-accused, Jean Pierre Marechal, Cillia, and taking indecent images of his daughter, Caroline, and his daughters-in-law, Aurore and Celine.
Dominique Pelicot shows no emotion as the judge delivers his verdict.
Image source, ReutersLaura Gozzi
Reporting from Avignon
Gisèle and her daughter Caroline are sitting relatively far away from one another.
For several weeks now there have been signs relations between them were frosty after Gisèle's daughter made it clear she didn't think her mother had supported her enough after photos of a seemingly drugged Caroline were found on her father's laptop.
Dominique has always denied drugging and abusing his daughter.
Laura Gozzi
Reporting from Avignon
The president of the court, Roger Arata, has arrived, alongside the other judges.
We expect the verdicts and sentences for the 51 accused to start to be read out imminently.
Laura Gozzi
Reporting from Avignon
Dominique Pelicot has arrived, according to other journalists here.
He's followed by other defendants who are already incarcerated and will be sitting in a glass box to the left of the courtroom.
Image source, EPAGisèle Pelicot with her lawyer Stéphane Babonneau
While we await the verdicts and sentences for the accused in the mass rape of Gisèle Pelicot, we can bring you some key lines from an interview with her lawyer, Stéphane Babonneau.
He tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme there is no sentence that would give her back the years she has lost, but that "all that she can expect now is for justice".
He says it's impossible to understand the mindset of Gisèle's ex-husband, Dominique, saying the closest thing he said that may have answered why he did what he did was wanting to "submit an independent woman".
Asked about Gisèle's future, he says she is tired and relieved for the trial to be coming to an end.
"I told her that she has done her part of the job and now she should entrust this with society, the debates and how this needs to affect people’s thinking," he says.
"She does not want to be considered as an icon," he adds, saying she waived her right to anonymity and brought the case into the public eye in part to show other women that "they have a strength in them that they can’t even imagine and that they need to trust themselves. That’s her message."
You can listen to the full interview with Gisèle's lawyer here.
Laura Gozzi
Reporting from Avignon
Dominique Pelicot, 72, and his 50 co-defendants - accused of raping his wife Gisèle Pelicot at his behest - are assembled to hear their verdicts and sentences at a court in Avignon, France.
Gisèle, her children David, Florian and Caroline are there, accompanied by their two lawyers.
The president of the court, Roger Arata, should begin reading out the verdicts in the next few minutes.
We'll be bringing you live updates on this page. Stay with us.
Laura Gozzi
Reporting from Avignon
The defendants are trickling in one by one.
Several of them are coming into the courthouse carrying big bags - perhaps expecting to have to take them to jail later today.
One of them, a bald man in his 40s, looks angry as a photographer takes a photo of him and shoves him out the way.
Marianne Baisnee
Live reporter
Shortly after Gisèle Pelicot, one of the co-accused arrives at the courthouse in Avignon.
He's booed by the crowd and, as he enters the court, holds his middle finger up to them.
Gisèle Pelicot has arrived at the court in Avignon.
Supporters were heard applauding her as a crowd of journalists gathered around to take pictures.
Gisèle Pelicot arrives to supporters cheers at Avignon court
A selection of front pages from French newspapers this morning reflects the huge interest in today's verdicts in the country.
One says today will see "a verdict for the future", while another heralds "the hour of truth".
Other headlines show how deeply the case has resonated with the public: "One for all", one says. "A shaken generation," says another.
Image source, Libération'Mazan: A verdict for the future'
Image source, La Provence'The hour of truth'
Image source, Le Télégram'One for all'
Image source, La Croix'A shaken generation'
Could the Pelicot case reshape the way the France thinks about sexual assault?
In the latest episode of the BBC's Global Story podcast, Caitríona Perry speaks with Paris correspondent Andrew Harding about the trial of Dominique Pelicot and the 50 men who he allegedly persuaded to have sex with his wife after he had drugged her.
Harding says Gisèle Pelicot, who waived her right to privacy, has become a champion of justice and sexual abuse awareness as she faces her alleged abusers in court.
Listen to The Global Story here
Andrew Harding
Paris correspondent, reporting from Avignon
On the eve of the verdicts, one of the accused – a man who has already pleaded guilty to raping Gisèle Pelicot - lashed out at a “botched” and hurried mass trial involving all 51 accused.
The man, who we’ve agreed not to name as a condition for the interview, spoke to us through his daughter who also wished to remain anonymous.
The two were clearly close, and both sobbed as they contemplated a long and sleepless night followed by the possibility of a twelve-year prison sentence for the father, which is what the prosecution has demanded.
“There was not enough time (at the trial). For me it was botched work. Many people made their minds up right away,” said the daughter, sitting beside her father at their lawyer’s office in Avignon.
“I don’t say it is a total injustice. I admit that (my father) should perhaps be punished. He should have realised (that Gisèle Pelicot was not a consenting participant) and he should be punished for that. But he is someone who does not deserve prison at all. Ten years, fifteen years in prison, that’s not okay. It’s not fair,” said the daughter.
The accused, who was filmed performing a variety of sex acts on Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious body, spent eight months in prison before being released on bail ahead of the trial.
Through his daughter, the man argued, as so many of the accused have done, that he was “tricked” by Dominique Pelicot, and firmly believed that he was going to the couple’s house for a swinger’s threesome involving a fantasy that the woman – Gisèle Pelicot – would be asleep throughout.
“His first words to us (after his arrest) were ‘it’s not what you think, it’s not what they’ve told you, that’s not it,’” she said.
“My dad would not be (on trial) without Dominique Pelicot, of course. There would have been none of this. So, he is a victim, of course.”
Laura Gozzi
Reporting from Avignon
Image source, EPADays before the trial started, the Pelicots' divorce was finalised.
Gisèle has gone back to her maiden name. She went by the name Pelicot for the trial so that her grandchildren could be "proud" of being related to her and not ashamed of being associated to Dominique.
She has since moved to a village far from Mazan. She sees a psychiatrist but doesn't take any medication, because she no longer wants to ingest any substance. She continues to go on long walks, but is no longer tired.
In the early days of the trial, Gisèle's son-in-law, Pierre, took the stand.
A defence lawyer asked him about the Mazan years, when Gisèle was suffering from memory loss and her husband was dutifully accompanying her to unfruitful medical appointments. How could the family not have realised what was happening?
Pierre shook his head.
"You are forgetting one thing," he said. "You cannot imagine the unimaginable."
Caroline Darian, the daughter of Gisèle and Dominique Pelicot, has arrived, followed by her brothers.
She is met with applause by the dozens of people gathered outside, some of whom have been singing feminist chants for the last while.
Image source, Reuters