At the Vaucluse criminal court,
If we stick to the facts, and only the facts, Cédric G. is probably not the accused who first attracts attention. Among the fifty men suspected of having raped Gisèle Pelicot, some came up to six times, stayed several hours… Cédric G. is not one of them. This 50-year-old computer technician, angular face, pale complexion, white hair combed back, went to Mazan once, in October 2017. He stayed less than an hour. But the nature of his relationship with Dominique Pelicot – “a relationship between master and student” – and the perversity that marked his life make him, without a doubt, one of the most chilling characters in this file. “In terms of deviance, I have broken quite a few records,” he admits.
Cédric G. does not deny the facts with which he is accused. When he goes to Mazan, he knows full well that he is going there to commit rape. From the first exchanges on the Coco site, Dominique Pelicot told him that he was drugging his wife to hand her over to men. “Am I excited about what he has in store for me? I'm curious, it tickles me. » Cédric G. affirms that previously he had never “fantasized” about raping a woman but once the proposition was made, he felt an “unhealthy curiosity”. For several weeks, the septuagenarian sent him photos and videos of his wife. Some of a sexual nature, others of everyday life. He also does discreet “live streams” of Gisèle Pelicot’s daily life. Particularly voluble, the accused admits that observing his future victim contributes to his desire to attack her.
“I dream of her being raped”
On the day of the incident, however, nothing goes “as planned”. He does not feel the expected excitement, does not have an erection. “It’s like a movie trailer, it looks fantastic but you’re going to see the movie, it’s not great,” he dares. This does not prevent him from imposing penetrations on the victim, particularly oral penetration. The two men do not, however, stop their contacts. A few weeks later, they found themselves in Aix-en-Provence, where Marion*, the partner of Cédric G, lives. “You will consider reproducing the process” with her, continues the president, Roger Arata. The accused acquiesces.
On Monday, the young woman – like two other former companions – came to talk about the trauma left by this relationship. Cédric G. unknowingly broadcast videos of their antics, published on the Internet his address, that of his work or his telephone number so that she could be harassed. Marion had to change jobs as the situation became unbearable. During their separation, she discovered exchanges with Dominique Pelicot on Cédric G.'s phone: this was well before the affair broke out, she knew nothing of the septuagenarian's criminal practices. “I dream of her being raped on the way home,” writes her companion. “It’s a phrase that’s going around in my head,” she comments at the bar.
“It’s a power that flatters your ego”
That day, in Aix-en-Provence, Cédric G. shows Dominique Pelicot where she lives. He even briefly opens the door to his apartment for her while she is at work. In exchange, the septuagenarian gives him a vial of the mixture that he administered to Gisèle Pelicot. “He has this wish to get me to reproduce the same thing,” explains the accused. The parallel between the two men is striking. They have the same voice, the same phrasing. “A pervert recognizes a pervert,” insists Cédric G. He confides that when he heard the experts talk about Dominique Pelicot, he had the impression that they were talking about him. “It’s a slap in the face,” he assured.
For Cédric G., being in possession of the vial is “exhilarating”. “It’s a power, it flatters your ego. You are in total transgression. » He swears, despite everything, that he has never used it, believing that – even for him – “it goes too far”. One episode, however, raises questions: in April 2018, Marion woke up unconscious, in the street. “The memory never came back to me, I’ve lived with it for six years,” she confided, upset. But that day, she had not seen her companion, he was at home, several kilometers away. Dominique Pelicot also claims to have recovered the mixture shortly after.
A sexuality “already quite distorted”
On Wednesday, the court tried to understand the origin of this perversity. In 2017, when Cédric G. met Dominique Pelicot, his sexuality was, by his own admission, “already quite distorted”. He talks about a “first tipping point” as a teenager, when he was raped by his uncle. A trauma that he didn’t talk to anyone about, that he “put under the rug”. The second turning point comes in his twenties, when he is convicted of domestic violence and is forced to return to his parents.
“I could have fallen into drugs, alcohol and I turned to sex.” He describes an “outlet” with the desire to always go further. Investigators found child abuse images on his computer. A discovery which echoes the testimony of one of his companions: Cédric G. asked him, during their antics, to call him “daddy”. If she accepted this, she always refused to wear pigtails as he asked her to. Photomontages inviting attacks on teenage girls – including the daughter of an ex – were also found on his computer.
“I can’t apologize”
Cédric G. punctuates each of his sentences with “it’s terrible”, affirms that from now on he sees himself “at the bottom of a lake” or at the “end of a rope”. “The life I led was terrible, it caused enormous collateral damage. » However, it is difficult to discern sincere remorse in his speech. “It’s so dramatized that it’s difficult to see if there is an anchor in the emotional register,” analyzes the expert-psychiatrist.
Words that resonate Friday evening, when the accused turns to Gisèle Pelicot. “I cannot apologize, if I apologized it is because I am not aware of what I did to you,” he begins, before continuing: “Madame Pelicot, I I was your rapist, I need that to be said. I was your executioner. » The tirade – of the same ilk – lasts several minutes. At the end, Dominique Pelicot tells the court his feelings: Cédric G. has “much more perversity” than him. On this point, however, the question is far from being settled.
