The trial of Dominique P., a septuagenarian who drugged his wife with anxiolytics for nearly ten years, to have her raped by around fifty strangers recruited on the internet, mainly at their home in Mazan (Vaucluse), opened on Monday in Avignon. The hearings will be public.
With her bobbed red hair and round sunglasses, the main victim, Gisèle P., 72, arrived at the courthouse surrounded by her lawyers and her three children, without saying a word. According to her lawyer, she “intends to face the gaze“51 men aged 26 to 74, including 18 in the prisoners’ box, tried by the Vaucluse criminal court for acts which could earn them up to 20 years of criminal imprisonment.
About thirty minutes behind schedule, the president of the criminal court, Roger Arata, announced the opening of this trial, which will theoretically last until mid-December, or even until December 20. All the civil parties, including Gisèle P., requested that the trial take place in public. The attorney general and the defense requested that the trial be held in camera. The closed session was ultimately ruled out.
