A court on Thursday sentenced a French man to the maximum term of 20 years jail for committing and orchestrating the mass rapes of his now former wife Gisele Pelicot with dozens of strangers he recruited online.

Dominique Pelicot, who had already confessed to the crimes, was earlier found guilty by the court in the southern city of Avignon after an over three-month trial that shocked France and turned his former wife Gisele into a feminist hero. 

His 50 co-defendants in the case were also convicted by the court, with no acquittals. The sentences of the other defendants were being announced in the course of Thursday morning.

Tension was palpable in the courtroom, where a heavy police presence was deployed.

A court sketch of Dominique Pelicot, who has been sentenced to 20 years for committing and orchestrating the mass rape of his wife. Photo: AFP

Many defendants arrived at the hearing with their bags packed ready for prison. One of them was in tears as he hugged his companion before entering the courtroom.

"Mr Pelicot, you are found guilty of the aggravated rape of Gisele Pelicot," said the presiding judge of the criminal court in Avignon, Roger Arata.

Delivering sentence, Arata said Dominique Pelicot will not be eligible for parole until he has served two-thirds of his sentence.

Dominique Pelicot, 72, has admitted to drugging Gisele Pelicot for almost a decade so he and strangers he recruited online could rape her.

Gisele Pelicot, 72, has become a feminist hero at home and abroad for refusing to be ashamed, waiving her right to a closed trial and standing up to her aggressors in court.

Alongside her ex-husband, 50 other men aged 27 to 74 have been on trial, including one who did not abuse her but raped his own wife with Dominique Pelicot's help.

Earlier Thursday, Gisele Pelicot arrived at the courthouse smiling and cheered by crowds of supporters and feminist activists waiting outside who chanted her name and slogans like "Justice for Gisele" and "Shame has Changed Sides".

"Rape affects women all over the world, that's why the whole world has its eyes on what's going to happen," said Ghislaine Sainte Catherine, one of the members of the Amazons of Avignon feminist collective.

Gisele Pelicot's children David, Caroline and Florian arrived half an hour earlier, entering the courtroom alongside a group of men accused of raping their mother. 

Images of Gisele Pelicot dominated the front pages of major French papers on Thursday.

"A verdict for the future" said left-leaning Liberation. "Merci madame," said L'Humanite, while La Provenance declared "the moment of truth".

A banner reading in French "Thank you Gisele" hangs on Avignon's old city wall.

Gisele Pelicot: France rape survivor who became a feminist hero  

When the trial of her now ex-husband and 50 other defendants opened in the French city of Avignon in September, journalists saw a woman with short red hair, hiding behind sunglasses.

The main victim in the case that shocked France was a grandmother whose life partner had admitted to drugging her for almost a decade so he and dozens of strangers he recruited online could rape her while unconscious.

But then Gisele Pelicot waived her right to anonymity and demanded the public be allowed access to the trial to raise awareness about drug use to commit abuse.

She won hearts across France and abroad, and triggered a flurry of art in her honour, after she said it was her abusers -- not her -- who should be ashamed.

"I wanted all women who are rape victims to say to themselves: 'Mrs Pelicot did it, so we can do it too'," she told the court in October.

"It's not us who should feel shame, but them," she added, referring to perpetrators.

Caroline Darian, David Pelicot and Florian Pelicot arrive at the courthouse for the verdict in the trial of their father.

As news of the trial spread, protests erupted across France to show support and fans started cheering her or even greeting her with flowers when she arrived in court.

And over the trial's course, Gisele Pelicot shed her dark sunglasses.

- 'Rape is rape' -

Ahead of the verdicts, the 72-year-old has made it onto the BBC's 100 Women list for 2024, alongside fellow mass rape survivor and Nobel Prize winner Nadia Murad and Hollywood actor Sharon Stone.

Pelicot in August obtained a divorce from her husband, who has confessed to the abuse after meticulously documenting it with photos and videos.

She has moved away from the southern town of Mazan where, in her own words, her husband Dominique Pelicot treated her like "a piece of meat" or a "rag doll" for years.

She now uses her maiden name, but during the trial has asked the media to use her former name as a married woman -- the one passed on to some of her seven grandchildren.

In mid-September, she dropped her usual reserve to talk of her humiliation and her anger towards several lawyers who had made insinuations about her ordeal.

"Rape is rape," she said.

In October, she said she was "broken" but determined to change society.

She again told the court last month it was time for a "macho, patriarchal" society to shift its attitude towards rape.

She said the marathon hearings were an examination of the "cowardice" of the men who took part in the assaults.

Many had argued they thought they were taking part in a couple's fantasy after consent by proxy through her husband.

She expressed her anger that none of her abusers alerted the police about the rapes, which occurred between 2011 and 2020.

Several took part in the abuse six times.

Fifty men besides her 72-year-old ex-husband are on trial, including one who did not rape Gisele Pelicot but repeatedly abused his own wife with Dominique Pelicot's help.

Several of the co-defendants have admitted to rape.

But more than 20 other suspects remain at large as investigators had not managed to identify them before the start of the mass trial.

- Memory lapses -

The daughter of a member of the military, Gisele Pelicot was born on December 7, 1952 in Germany, returning to France with her family when she was five. 

When she was nine, her mother, aged just 35, died of cancer.

Her older brother Michel died of a heart attack aged 43, before her 20th birthday.

She met Dominique Pelicot, her future husband and rapist, in 1971.

She had dreamt of becoming a hairdresser but instead studied to be a typist. After a few years temping, she joined France's national electricity company EDF, ending her career in a logistics service for its nuclear power plants.

At home, she looked after her three children, then seven grandchildren.

After she retired, she enjoyed walking and singing in a local choir.

Only when the police caught her husband filming up women's skirts in a supermarket in 2020 did she find out the true reason behind her troubling memory lapses.