Jérôme V., 46 years old, Jean T., 52 years old, Redouane E., 55 years old: the fifth week of hearing in the trial of a husband who drugged his wife to have her raped by strangers for a decade, tried with 50 co-accused, opened this Monday, without the main accused, excused for the day for medical reasons.
“He is unwell. He has to undergo a medical procedure this afternoon. I have excused him for the day. […] We will take stock of his state of health at the end of the day.”explained at the start of the hearing the president of the criminal court of Vaucluse (south), Roger Arata. The main accused, Dominique Pelicota 71-year-old retiree, had already undergone a medical examination on Friday, a day on which no hearing had been scheduled. His lawyer, Me Béatrice Zavarro, told AFP on Sunday that this examination “went well”then expecting his client to be present this Monday. The trial, which began on September 2 and is due to last until December 20, has already been suspended for two days in mid-September due to the absence of Mr. Pelicot, suffering from intestinal problems.
In his absence, the court therefore began to address the cases of a third group of co-defendants, seven among the fifty men whom Dominique Pelicot had contacted on the internet, over ten years, from July 2011 to October 2020, to come and rape his wife, after he had drugged her with anxiolytics. Over the past two weeks, the cases of the first ten co-accused had been studied. Most of them are being prosecuted for aggravated rape, and they face up to 20 years of criminal imprisonment. Eighteen of these accused, including Dominique Pelicot, appear detained. Thirty-two others appear free, the last, on the run, being tried in absentia.
Personality surveys
While waiting for these seven men to be questioned, a priori on Thursday, in the presence of Dominique Pelicot, the court began this Monday by dissecting their characters and their life paths, with the personality investigators. Tuesday and Wednesday, she should address their psychological and then psychiatric expertise.
Jérôme V., 46, a former employee in a food store, is one of the main defendants in this trial, the victim of which has become an icon in the fight against violence against women. According to the prosecution, he is one of four men who came six times to the couple’s marital home in Mazan, in the south-east of France, in 2020, to rape Gisèle Pelicot. He would have gone through a difficult childhood, victim “psychological and verbal violence” from his parents, explained personality investigator Elisa Scheidt.
Qualified person “pragmatic and utilitarian in his relationship with others”this enthusiast “hiking and extramarital affairs” had a “frustrated sexuality, which led him to seek satisfaction elsewhere”. Father of three children, one of whom was illegitimate, he signed up as a volunteer firefighter. “A good excuse to approach women”he explained to the investigator, wondering himself about a possible “sex addiction”.
“In terms of human relations, he was special” more “he had no reason to look elsewhere”testified on the stand, in tears, his current partner, who continues to go see him in the visiting room. “I don’t understand why he didn’t tell me about Madame Gisèle”she added, looking at her and in him “giving full support”. The latter did not react.
The court also spoke about Simone M., 43, a construction worker. Presented as “someone who is impressionable, naive”he would have “sank into alcohol” because of a life as a couple judged by those around him as “unbalanced and disharmonious”.
Adrien L., 34 years old, from a family background “very stable”presents him with “great narcissistic fragility”according to investigator Marianne Douteau. Qualified as “mythomaniac” et “jealous” by an ex-partner, he has been imprisoned since 2020 and has already been sentenced to 14 years in prison for three previous rapes of his concubines.
This Monday, the court also heard personality investigations concerning four other defendants: Thierry P., a 61-year-old refrigeration craftsman, also charged with possession of child pornography images; Jean T., 52 years old, former roofer, described by those around him as “helpful, courageous and kind”; Redouane E., 55 years old, liberal nurse in “many sexual needs”; or finally Thierry P., 54, a former mason who had fallen into alcoholism after the death of his 18-year-old son in a car accident.
Closed at 6:00 p.m. local time (4:00 p.m. GMT) and with no news on the health of Dominique Pelicot, the debates should resume this Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. (07:00 GMT) with the hearings of the three psychologists who examined this group of seven accused.
