A French woman who killed her stepfather, who raped her at the age of 12 and later became her husband, has been convicted of premeditated murder but spared any more time in prison.

Valérie Bacot was subject to more than 20 years of violence at the hands of Daniel Polette, with whom she had four children. The court heard she shot and killed him after he began prostituting her to strangers, fearing that he was about to begin abusing their teenage daughter.

The jury at the court in Saône-et-Lore deliberated for almost five hours on Friday before rejecting the defence team’s claims that Bacot was not of sound mind at the time of the killing, and found her guilty.

She was given a four-year prison sentence, three of them suspended. Taking into account the time she had already spent in jail, Bacot will not return to prison.