A French court has declared the ex-husband of Gisele Pelicot and 50 other co-defendants guilty in a mass-rape case that has gripped the world, turning the victim into a feminist icon.

A panel of five judges at the criminal court in the southern French city of Avignon judged 72-year-old Dominique Pelicot guilty on Thursday of orchestrating the drugging and the raping of his wife for almost a decade, offering up her body to his 50 co-conspirators.

Dominique Pelicot, who had pleaded guilty to the charges during the three-month trial, was sentenced to the maximum 20 years in jail, with prosecutors seeking terms of between four and 18 years for the other defendants.

Almost all of the 50 co-defendants are accused of raping Gisele Pelicot. Some of the men acknowledged wrongdoing, while others said they believed she had consented to sex.

Gisele Pelicot, who is also 72, was seated on one side of the courtroom, facing the defendants as the lead judge of the court, Roger Arata, announced one guilty verdict after another.

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Working his way through the first names on the list, Arata declared “you are therefore declared guilty of aggravated rape on the person of Mme. Gisele Pelicot”.

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

A cheer went up outside the court among the victim’s supporters when news of the first guilty verdicts filtered out.

During the trial, Dominique Pelicot admitted that for years he knocked his then wife of 50 years out with drugs so that he and strangers he recruited online could abuse her while he filmed the assaults.

Gisele Pelicot waived her right to anonymity during the hearings and demanded that horrifying videos of the serial abuse, which were recorded by her former husband, should be seen in court.

“I’ve decided not to be ashamed, I’ve done nothing wrong,” she testified in October. “They are the ones who must be ashamed,” she said.

Pelicot has become a feminist champion in France as the historic case has profoundly shaken the country over the past several months.

“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.

She now uses her maiden name, but during the trial has asked the media to use her former name as a married woman.

The Pelicots’ children, David, Caroline and Florian, arrived in court to hear the verdict alongside their mother.