French National Assembly President Yaël Braun-Pivet posted on social media following the verdicts:

“Thank you for your courage, Gisèle Pelicot,” he wrote. “Because of you, the voices of so many victims are being heard today, the shame is changing sides, the taboo has been broken. Thanks to you, the world is no longer the same.”

A few photos from the courtroom in Avignon, taken before the judges announced that all 51 defendants had been found guilty:

The panel of judges has found all 51 defendants in France’s mass rape trial guilty after a three-month trial that drew worldwide attention.

At the center of the case was Dominique Pelicot, who admitted to drugging his then-wife Gisèle Pelicot for nearly a decade, offering her unconscious body for sex to dozens of strangers he met online and filming the abuse.

The judges found him guilty of, among other things, aggravated rape and sentenced him to a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

As news of his verdict spread, cheers rang out outside the courtroom, where supporters of Gisèle and women’s rights activists had gathered.

The French court also found 46 of the other defendants guilty of rape, two of attempted rape and two of sexual assault.

All 51 men on trial were found guilty

Among the defendants was a man who did not rape Gisèle Pelicot, but who, with the help of Dominique Pelicot, repeatedly abused his own wife.

BFMTV reports that the five-member panel of judges also found this man guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced him to 12 years in prison.

20 of the men on trial so far have been found guilty

Dominique Pelicot sentenced to 20 years in prison

In addition to Dominique Pelicot, fifty men are on trial, including one who did not rape Gisele Pelicot but, with Dominique Pelicot’s help, repeatedly abused his own wife.

More than 20 other suspects remain at large because investigators failed to identify them before the mass trial began.

The public prosecutor’s office has requested prison sentences of between 10 and 18 years against the 49 defendants, who are also accused of serious rape. One of these defendants is on the run and is being tried in absentia.

Another defendant, who faces the lesser charge of groping, faces up to four years in prison.

Reuters reports that the court found at least 20 defendants guilty of rape.

The German daily newspaper “Die Tageszeitung” honored Gisèle Pelicot on its cover today and captioned a picture of her with the word “Merci”.

As part of the process, around 165 media companies – including 76 foreign ones – reportedly applied for accreditation.

French television cameras outside the Avignon courtroom captured screams of joy as those gathered there – many of them supporters of Gisèle Pelicot and feminist activists – learned that Dominique Pelicot had been found guilty of the aggravated rape of Gisèle Pelicot.

Dominique Pelicot convicted of aggravated rape