AVIGNON, France (AFP) — A French court on Thursday sentenced Gisele Pelicot’s ex-husband to the maximum term of 20 years jail for committing and orchestrating the mass rapes targeting her 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 Pelicot into a feminist hero. Including Dominique Pelicot, all 51 defendants in the case were convicted by the court with no acquittals.

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

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

Gisele, 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.

On 25 November, prosecutors requested the maximum sentence against Pelicot for aggravated rape.

The prosecution has requested 10 to 18 years in prison against the 49 defendants also charged with aggravated rape. One of these accused is on the run and being tried in absentia.

One more accused — facing the lesser charge of groping — risks up to four years in prison.

Thirty-two of the accused are attending the trial as free men while the others, including Dominique, were remanded in custody.

Earlier Thursday, Gisele 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.”