Mazan rape trial | The Pelicot family “destroyed”, but fighting against the “unbearable”

(Avignon) How to cope when their father raped and had their mother raped by strangers under chemical submission? The Pelicot family, at the heart of a historic trial in France, is “annihilated”, tortured by unanswered questions, but determined that society refuses “the unbearable”.

The trial of serial rapes in Mazan, in the south-east of France, exposed to the whole world the ravages of sexual violence, devastation increased tenfold when it occurs within the family with the betrayal of a father, a husband, ‘a father-in-law…

Dominique Pelicot, 72, is accused of having drugged his now ex-wife, Gisèle, of the same age, to rape her and deliver her to dozens of strangers recruited via the internet over a decade in Mazan, in this house where the family loved to get together, enjoy an aperitif on the terrace.

“An entire family was destroyed,” the eldest of the siblings, David, 50, summarized in court on November 18.

“As for imagining that the conductor was the one we thought was healthy, loyal, in whom we trusted…”, remarked Gisèle Pelicot’s daughter, Caroline.

She was the first to write about the earthquake which turned “her simple life” upside down and fractured her family, in a book published in 2022, And I stopped calling you dad.

At the trial, David no longer uses the term father, speaking of “that man in the box”. Florian, 38, says he wants to “carry out a paternity test” because “he no longer sleeps at night”.

“My world is collapsing, everything I had built for 50 years,” testifies Gisèle, officially divorced just before the start of the trial and unfazed on Monday by his latest attempt at an apology.

“Permanently hit”

“Everyone is lastingly impacted by this horror,” underlines M^e Antoine Camus, a few days before the verdict, expected Thursday. With his colleague M^e Stéphane Babonneau, they represent all members of the civil party family, up to the grandchildren. “They have lost their innocence,” insists one of the daughters-in-law, Céline, at court.

“Before the trial, everyone was in a quest for truth: who is this man in fact? What did he do? Since when? Are all our memories false? », Tells AFP M^e Camus.

“They didn’t get an answer because Dominique Pelicot only says what he wants to say. As long as the evidence is not waved under his nose, he says nothing,” adds the one who understands despite everything this “hope” of obtaining answers. “We say to ourselves “when I have him in front of me, he will spit the truth””.

This lack of response is particularly violent for Caroline. Investigators found naked photos of her, taken without her knowledge, on the computer of her father, who was arrested in the fall of 2020. In some, she appears asleep, dressed in her mother’s underwear, in a file with a disturbing name.

Despite the calls of his brothers at the hearing, including that of David, “if you still have a little humanity, [je voudrais que] you tell the truth about the actions you had on my sister, who is suffering”, Dominique Pelicot continues to deny. Just as he remains laconic about the photos of his daughters-in-law taken without their knowledge.

Caroline feels “the forgotten one” in the trial: “Gisèle was raped under chemical submission, the only difference between her and me is the lack of evidence concerning me,” she asserts on the stand.

Female fighters

But the “family will continue to fight”, assures David, evoking the painful reconstruction of each person and of a reconstituted cell by erasing Dominique Pelicot.

Caroline continues her fight to warn of the dangers of chemical submission. “She quickly made the diagnosis that this file transcends family history,” says M.^e Camus.

By publishing her book in 2022 – while preserving the anonymity of those close to her –, at a time when Gisèle preferred to remain discreet, Caroline writes that she wanted to “transform this mud into noble material”, to help the victims overcome the “weight of shame », “refuse the unbearable”.

Two years later, his mother refused to hold the trial in camera, making the debate on rape resound worldwide.

“When she saw the videos in May, she asked herself ‘how was it possible that I was treated like that, like a trash bag, hundreds of times? That we find dozens of people to rape an inert woman?” She thought, “What does that say about all of us? As a society,” explains M^e Camus.

If Caroline and Gisèle experience things differently – “each does what they can, looking at the future at 72 is not the same thing as at 46”, underlines the lawyer – they have this “common denominator », broader battles, and a formula taken up by both: “So that shame changes sides”.