At the Vaucluse criminal court,
Paul G. is one of the rare defendants in the Mazan rape trial not to make excuses. “Yes, I raped. I accept that I violated it,” he admits in a confident voice, at the bar of the Vaucluse criminal court. And no, contrary to what many of the accused say, he was not afraid of Dominique Pelicot. He did not feel under her control or under her influence. No way. “If I went there, it was to have fun. I didn't think about the consequences,” explains this Guinean with a slender figure and short, slightly bleached hair. And to clarify: “I was young, but that’s no excuse. »
The facts with which he is accused date back to 2016. He was 23 years old at the time. He arrived in France five or six years ago but has just settled in the South, after years spent in the Nantes region. The first exchanges with Dominique Pelicot took place on the Coco.fr website. The septuagenarian swears that they met on the online show “Without his knowledge”. He, like many accused, assures that it was a classic chat. The nuance raises questions: Dominique Pelicot, since the opening of the trial, has not missed an opportunity to undermine his co-accused, to highlight their inconsistencies or undermine their defense. But why would he, who confessed, lie on this point?
Awareness while chatting with friends
Because Paul G. explains that from the first exchange, he is informed of the operating procedure. “He said to me: 'We are a libertine couple and my wife will be asleep. Are you interested in coming to the house?' » He hesitates. To convince him, Dominique Pelicot sends him a first photo of Gisèle Pelicot sleeping. He doesn't answer. The septuagenarian then sends her a photo where she is in the toilet. He lets himself be persuaded. As he does not have a driving license, the appointment is made in the middle of the day: Dominique Pelicot drugged his wife at breakfast then went to pick up his “guest” at Carpentras station. The two men took turns raping the victim, who was asleep.
“Your story is quite similar to what many are saying, but you draw the conclusion that it was rape. How do you explain it? », asks Me Antoine Camus, one of Gisèle Pelicot's two lawyers. The accused claims to have had his first awareness while talking with friends. “They explained to me that the act I had committed was very, very serious. » Reason why he refused to return to Mazan four years later, when Dominique Pelicot relaunched him. In the meantime, Paul G. also explains that he has become the father of a little boy. His partner was hospitalized in a psychiatric ward, he is now responsible for the child.
“We are men like everyone else”
Perhaps the answer can also be found in religion. The man grew up in an extremely devout Catholic family: his father is a pastor and he hopes to become one after the procedure. “My plan is to go to Guinea to do training with my father. » In the meantime, “the best thing is to repent and confess”, he insists.
Our file on the Mazan rape trial
But did he really realize the seriousness of the facts? His apologies to Gisèle Pelicot are commonplace. On the stand, he deplores the consequences of this affair on his life. The “mockery at work”, the “insults” he suffered when the list of names was revealed. “We are not monsters, we are men like everyone else. We have a life, too,” he loses his temper.
