Day of the verdicts Inside, men wept as they were convicted. Outside, the crowd roared with relief

Inside, men wept as they were convicted. Outside, the crowd roared with relief

- Angelique Chrisafis

As Gisèle Pelicot walked down the steps of the Avignon courthouse at the end of the biggest rape trial in French history, hundreds of supporters who had travelled across France and the rest of Europe burst into cheers and applause, chanting: "Thank you, Gisèle."

Others stood with placards that read: "Shame has changed sides" in honour of her words, back in October, to explain why she was waiving her anonymity and facing down her rapists in court: "It's not for us to have shame," she said then. "It's for them."

Yesterday, as the court handed down its verdicts and sentencing in the trial of her ex-husband and 50 other men, the walls of the southern French city were plastered in posters saying: "Women united with Gisèle" and "Thanks for your bravery."

The 72-year-old former logistics manager and grandmother of seven became a feminist hero worldwide after insisting that the rape trial be held in public. Her then husband had crushed sleeping tablets and anti-anxiety medication into her food and drink for almost a decade, inviting dozens of men to rape her while she was unconscious in her bed in the village of Mazan in Provence.

Most of the accused had denied rape, saying they thought it was a game, or that her husband had given consent on her behalf.

Inside the courtroom yesterday, the accused men, aged between 26 and 74, who included a solider, fire officer, nurse, journalist and prison warden, sat with their heads lowered in silence as the head judge read out the verdicts.

Every single man was found guilty of at least one charge - 47 of rape, two of attempted rape and two of sexual assault. Some of the men wept, and reached for tissues. Some of their family members also began crying, including the mother of a painter and decorator who had raped Gisèle Pelicot in her bed when he was 24 and she was 65.