The last accused in the Mazan rape trial will be heard by the Vaucluse criminal court. After two and a half months of debate, it was impossible to establish a typical profile of the rapist. On the contrary, the expert opinions, witnesses and statements of the accused deny the vision of the perverse aggressor.
“You know, I can count the perverts on the fingers of one hand that I have encountered in a criminal court.” This psychologist with 7,000 assessments in 40 years of career as an expert in the justice system assures us: only very rarely does a pathological dimension appear among attackers.
After two and a half months at the Mazan rape trial, and while the last seven accused to be tried will be heard this Friday, no typical profile could be detected among the 50 co-accused of Dominique Pelicot.
On September 10, a week after the start of the trial, expert psychiatrist Laurent Layet spoke of “the banality of evil”, a concept developed by the philosopher Hannah Arendt. A good number of these accused are fathers of families, most of these men aged 26 to 73 are socially and professionally integrated, a large majority have also received the support of relatives who came to testify on their behalf before the criminal court of Vaucluse.
“The typical sexual abuser profile does not exist”
“No disorders of the organization of the personality”, “no particular deficiencies”, “no perverse or deviant tendencies”, “no psychological pathologies” have been echoed by the psychologist or psychiatric experts since September 16 during the reading of their report on the 51 accused. “The accused does not have a typical personality of sexual attackers even if there is not really a typical personality,” noted psychologist expert Laurent Chaïb on Thursday, November 14.
“There is no typical profile of sexual abuser, it does not exist,” said his successor at the helm Alain Dumez, psychologist who assessed five of the accused.
For the expert, the concept of profile implies a “repetition” which is not noted among the attackers. “On a relational level, these are people who have difficulty understanding the subjectivity of others, but this is not specific to this type of situation,” continues Alain Dumez. The 51 defendants in this historic trial have often been described as “everyman”.
A term rejected by the civil party, today “tired”, “tired of hearing all these men at the bar” denying the facts, according to those around them. And this despite the fact that the majority of acts of sexual violence are committed by members of the victim's entourage.
“We must get away from this typology of the desocialized sexual aggressor, who no one likes, who has no human relationships. Of course everyone has human relationships, but on the other hand, what this trial reveals, “We can have all that and still have committed the acts. The best example is Dominique Pelicot,” said Stéphane Babonneau, lawyer for Gisèle Pelicot, who recalls that, in this trial, there would be “. word against word” between the victim and men described as a “good father”, “a loving companion” or “a good work colleague”.
Mazan rapes: who are these women who support their accused husbands?
Similar personality traits
The notion of ordinary men, however, has been dismissed by experts. “That would be equivalent to saying that all men are capable of such actions so, no, we cannot categorize these men as ordinary men,” noted psychiatrist Laurent Layet on November 7. “The act itself moves the individual into another category,” continued the expert.
So how can we explain that these men, for the most part with a “personality within the normal limit” and a “good cognitive understanding of the law”, as was said of these accused, accepted Dominique Pelicot's proposal after be connected to Coco.gg. For expert Alain Dumez, we must talk more about “personality traits”, starting with egocentrism and the absence of empathy, mainly towards Gisèle Pelicot, two characteristics found in most of the accused. There is also impulsivity but also a certain vision of male-female relationships.
For Alain Dumez, there is a “not seen, not taken” side among these men in response to a sexual need, to the point of breaking down known prohibitions. “In a scenario of this type, what is proposed would be an expert, crazy, fantastical way of accessing enjoyment,” notes the psychologist. “For a person who is not a pervert, with a personality within the normal limit, there is a certain attraction when faced with a person who says 'I know how to do it'. They can be amazed, fascinated without 'they are easily influenced.'
“What we offer them makes them people at a given moment who engage in perverse acts.”
A quarter of accused victims as children
The fact remains that 23 of the 51 accused have a criminal record. Six of them have already been convicted of domestic violence. “A deviant sexuality” was noted among these men, while several of them are also on trial for possessing child pornography images, or at least an “excessive sexuality”, as one of the accused described it.
Among similar profiles, we can note that half had a deprived childhood, with feelings of abandonment, separated parents, violent environments, etc. A quarter of them were also abused during this childhood. . Starting with Dominique Pelicot who spoke of an attack at the age of 9 during a hospital stay, then the obligation to participate in a gang rape a few years later. “We are not born perverse, we become one,” he declared to the court.
Adrien L. accuses a cousin of sexual assault. Simone M., who grew up in New Caledonia, says she was raped by a friend of the family where he worked. Romain V. was delivered to a priest by his parents. Jean-Pierre M. was also the victim of sexual abuse by his father as a child. Fabien S. had his father convicted in his foster family. Ludovick B. filed a complaint against the father of a childhood friend, already sentenced to life imprisonment for an assassination in 1996.
“Not all individuals who have been victims become perpetrators, but it is a factor to take into account,” explained psychologist Annabelle Montagne, who assessed half of the 51 accused, on November 6. Experiences of sexual assault in childhood will influence later sexual development.
Dominique Pelicot’s collective responsibility advanced
“We all have impulses, they are essential, but what makes some people act? This is where the risk factors come into account, factors linked to the environmental or social context, consumption of toxic substances but also factors linked to education and in particular trauma experienced during childhood”, adds Nathalie Sierra-Scroccaro, psychologist and author of the book Sexual violence: clinical and therapeutic approaches.
For Me Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, who supports many victims of sexual violence, the statements of these defendants who say they are victims must be taken with caution. “It can also be a defense strategy to minimize the seriousness of the facts, reduce the sentence and try to provide an explanation,” believes the criminal lawyer.
Where all the accused find themselves, it is the responsibility of Dominique Pelicot, presented by all as the conductor of the orchestra. With the exception of one or two of these men, all claim to have not been informed that Gisèle Pelicot would be drugged when they came. All believe they were manipulated and were not aware of the victim's state of unconsciousness. “If we don't have all the information, it can have an impact on your understanding of the situation,” says psychologist Laurent Chaïb, referring to “cognitive biases” and referring to “reasoning that may seem credible.”
This version is however contradicted by Dominique Pelicot, who returned to the dock on Friday after being hospitalized, assured for each of these 50 men that they were perfectly aware that it was a rape. It is also undermined by the videos, of which those of the seven accused tried this week will be broadcast.
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