If 2024 “belonged” to one person, it was Gisèle Pelicot. The image of the 72-year-old grandmother sitting with her back straight in a French courtroom today as her 50 rapists were convicted is as indelible as the facts of the Avignon trial are inexplicable. A husband who drugged and raped his wife for ten years in their Provençal home, then drove her to specialists for abdominal pain and memory loss. 49 men who joined him under the cover of darkness and attacked her – men who ranged in age from 27 to 72, including nurses and prison guards, firefighters and truck drivers, all living within 30 miles of each other years were. (“Monsieur-Tout-le-Monde,” as the French press called her). Thousands of images and videos of these rapes, neatly organized and cataloged in a hard drive file simply titled “Abuse” – a pixelated who’s who of predatory perpetrators.

“It is time for the macho, patriarchal society that trivializes rape to change,” Gisèle said in her final statement to the court this week. “It’s time we changed the way we view rape.” Her steadfast refusal to be either embarrassed or embarrassed during her 15-week trial has, I think, contributed more to this change than she realizes. It is Gisèle who, despite the concerns of those around her, decided to have a public trial; Also Gisèle, who actively campaigned for the images and videos of her attacks to be shown in court. Journalists present described them as torturous to watch; I can’t imagine what strength it must have taken to endure watching it again.

But she endured it. And in some ways – and only some ways – her decision to move on was vindicated. Today her husband Dominique, “the Monster of Avignon,” bowed and weeping, was sentenced to a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for rape. Gisèle leaned her head against the courthouse wall as Judge Roger Arata handed down the sentence for her partner of five decades. And then, one by one, every single one of her other 49 rapists were found guilty of aggravated rape and/or sexual assault. Outside the courtroom, a gathered crowd held up a banner that read: La Honte Change de Camp. Shame changes sides.

And yet: Almost all of Gisèle’s rapists, with the exception of her husband, received shorter sentences than the public prosecutor’s office had demanded. Six of them will leave court today having either already served their sentences or been granted probation. The longest sentence, apart from Dominique, was 15 years for Romain Vandevelde, a man who raped Gisèle six times and refused to use a condom despite knowing he was HIV positive. Jean-Pierre Marechal – the only defendant who did not attack Gisèle but used Dominique’s methods to rape his own wife – received 12 years in prison. Sometimes Dominique joined him. Caroline Darian, Gisèle’s daughter, sat in court and listened to the conditions being read out. She whispered the words, “That’s not possible.”