Several men convicted of sexually abusing Gisele Pelicot have already been released from prison and are now leading relatively normal lives – just months after the infamous trial.

Dominique Pelicot, 72, dubbed the Monster of Avignon, was found guilty of drugging, raping and arranging the repeated rape and sexual abuse of his now ex-wife Gisele by dozens of other men. He and 50 other men were convicted of raping and sexually assaulting 72-year-old Gisele over a decade following the lengthy trial in France, which concluded in December.

The court found 47 of the defendants guilty of rape, two guilty of attempted rape and two guilty of sexual assault, with the 51 men receiving a combined sentence of 600 years. The men came from all walks of life, including civil servants, ambulance workers, soldiers, prison guards, nurses, truck drivers, a journalist, a DJ and a municipal councillor.

Many were described in court as good fathers and loving husbands, with psychological experts finding no personality disorders or psychological pathologies. However, due to poor health or having already served their sentence in pre-trial detention, at least six of the convicted men were released in December.

Many of those who have been released from prison have resumed their lives where they left off before the trial. In one instance, a convicted man was welcomed back into his family home and is now back at his workplace.

According to the French parole system, prisoners can apply for early release if they have served half of their sentence, or in some cases a third, and the rules are particularly lenient if the prisoner is over 70, has demonstrated good behaviour or owns a property they can return to.

In another instance, a man served only 11 months of his five-year sentence for aggravated rape, according to court documents seen by the Sunday Times. Meanwhile, justice eluded several other abusers, with police unable to identify more than 20 men involved.

Gisele has been lauded for her courage after she waived anonymity and attended the trial for three months, defiantly looking at each of the defendants as they were convicted of her rape and other crimes. When she spoke for the first time at the trial, Gisele became a symbol of the impact many rape survivors hoped the trial would have when she said: “Shame must change sides”.

As interest in the case grew, Gisele was applauded and cheered as she arrived at court and left at the end of the day. Despite this, many of the men convicted of the horrific crimes appear to feel no shame, with 17 launching appeals against their sentences.

Patrick Gontard, who represented Jean-Pierre Maréchal – the second most prominent defendant in the trial – said: “Certainly, there were others who didn’t feel it was right that they were sentenced.

“They argue they were tricked by Pelicot. A lot of people convince themselves that what they did wasn’t so bad. It’s human.” Gisele’s husband received the harshest sentence of 20 years for raping and organising.

The 72-year-old man, known as the Monster of Avignon, was found guilty of the mass rape of Gisele. The court also convicted him for recording and illegally broadcasting images of his wife and capturing images of three other women.

Police discovered around 20,000 explicit images and videos of Pelicot’s wife being abused on his computer, along with naked pictures of his daughter and two daughters-in-law. Despite his failing health, his daughter Caroline Darian shouted at him as his sentence was announced: “You will die alone like a dog in jail”.

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