Where are they, these “Mr. Everyman”? we ask ourselves as we enter the Voltaire room of the Avignon court. There are no more places left, this November 15, on the benches where defendants, lawyers and journalists mingle. We are trying to guess who are those prosecuted for having raped Gisèle Pelicot while she was heavily sedated. Thirty-two defendants appear free, under judicial supervision, awaiting the verdict expected the week of December 16.
This one, in the third row, emaciated face, anxious looks, in jeans and sneakers, is he one of them? This one, the build of a slumped mover who keeps chewing gum? And the little one with gray hair, frozen smile on his lips? Some know each other and we observe their complicity, smiles and winks exchanged, their blasé manners after eleven weeks of trial.
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Eighteen, incarcerated, are taken from their cells when they are to be questioned or when they ask to attend the debates. Supervised by police officers, they sit in a box intended for them and do not hesitate to chat with each other during breaks, and even to joke. Firefighter, truck driver, worker, IT specialist, soldier, unemployed, plumber, retiree, electrician, prison guard, nurse, restaurateur…
They are 47 years old on average, most of them fathers. “The accused box, it’s true, is a sort of kaleidoscope of French society, declares Antoine Camus, lawyer for Gisèle Pelicot and her children. But we do not believe, on the benches of the civil parties, that Mr. Everyman exists, just as we do not believe in monsters either. »
Although of various ages, backgrounds and social backgrounds, these men share a free will, a decision-making process that has placed them on the margins of society. They all chose to perpetrate these crimes in Gisèle Pelicot's bedroom, they all made her body an object that they had no qualms about degrading, they all shared the same misogyny.
None of them gave up violating this woman upon discovering her naked and unconscious. Neither did any of them report her husband's criminal proposals to the police. By their inability to morally judge their actions, by their lack of empathy, Mazan's accused are not like “everyone else”. They “have made the choice to resign from thought, which is precisely what distinguishes us from animals, to make their impulses prevail”, agrees Me Camus in his pleading.
The majority of the accused refuse to admit their guilt
Nearly half of these men have already been convicted, around ten say they were victims of violence in childhood, three have serious psychiatric disorders. The vast majority of them refuse to recognize their guilt, ensuring that they did not intend to rape, that they were deceived by Dominique Pelicot. A victimization noted by Me Babonneau: “The accused have chosen a mode of defense which for the most part is that of cowardice.” He emphasizes “the indigence of their questioning”, being indignant that those allow themselves to think that “although having been penetrated without her consent by them, Gisèle Pelicot was not the victim of rape on their part.”
Like Charly A., the youngest, who this November 15 seeks to apologize. He went to the Pelicot home six times, starting in 2016. He was only 22 years old at the time, with a painful family history and an addiction to pornographic films. His explanations, laborious, are not. Imprisoned since 2020, he is still trying to clear his name. “Mr. Pelicot told me that she consented, that she pretended to be asleep. […] He asked me to penetrate her. […] Afterwards he told me that his wife was happy. […] Later he told me he was giving her sleeping pills. »
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He acknowledges the penetrations, but assures that he did not intend to rape, even after the unbearable images of his rapes were broadcast on the courtroom screens. Like Charly A., later in the day, Nizar H., a forty-something with a serious criminal record, and Christophe L., the firefighter with child pornography images, contest the rapes.
The first says: “I thought his wife was faking it. I didn't hear her snoring. I think I was drugged too. » The second: “It’s definitely me in the videos, but I don’t explain it. I don't remember anything. My cognitive abilities were no longer there. » Many people consider that the consent of the husband authorizes them to dispense with that of the wife.
According to Romain V., sixty-year-old Dominique Pelicot “does what he wants, she’s his wife.” “As long as the husband was present, there was no rape,” says Adrien L., a thirty-year-old already convicted of rape. “I didn’t get a response from her since she was sleeping, but her husband told me she consented,” says Nicolas F., press correspondent.
These men plead “right to make the mistake of violating without intention”, argue that rape can be accidental and unintentional. There are thirty-three of them asking the court to take into account the alteration of their discernment, claiming that they too were drugged by Pelicot. “More excuses, more inventions…” reacted the man seated behind a window, dressed in a gray sweater, his face covered with dark circles and wrinkles.
From Simone de Beauvoir to Gisèle Pelicot, women standing
Here is Dominique Pelicot, the main accused in this historic trial. Psychiatrist experts say he suffers from sexual perversions or “paraphilias”, presenting a split personality, both criminal pervert and kind father. “They were fully aware of the situation,” repeats the 71-year-old man when his 50 associates try to clear customs. He is the only one who ended up admitting to being a rapist – investigators count at least 108 marital rapes – when confronted with some 4,000 images found on his computer.
“It doesn’t seem incoherent to me,” he replied to the police, who brought the number of men invited to the marital bedroom to 70 (20 were not identified). And this count could still rise as there remain gray areas in this sprawling issue. These so-called ordinary men go beyond the norm because of the ignominy of their actions, with a common denominator: Dominique Pelicot. Without hiding a smile, one of them, questioned by the judges, said: “Pelicot was the boss! »
