“I went to the end of myself, only to realize that there was no one there. » These are the words of Dominique Pelicot, transmitted by the voice of his lawyer Maître Béatrice Zavarro, who opened, this Wednesday, November 27, the defense pleadings of the 51 accused in the Mazan rape trial. In the divide, recalled by his lawyer, between Dominique, an exceptional husband and wonderful father, and Dominique who raped and had his sedated wife raped hundreds of times, there is today nothing more than a big void. . A black abyss, in which many lives have been destroyed. And it is an absolute feeling of solitude which will have emerged from this 52e day of hearing.
This is where Master Zavarro began: “In spite of myself, I have become the devil's advocate. » A nickname that was given to him and sticks to him. She assumes this bond woven between her and him, Dominique Pélicot “against the rest of the world”; a bond that “plunged her into extreme solitude, a solitude that weighed on me intensely. » How to defend the devil? This question created a singular echo by resonating in the Voltaire room of the Avignon court, when that very morning the General Counsel Laure Chabaud had concluded brilliantly on the historical issues of this trial, calling for the hope of “a collective societal awareness” and by asking the President and the judges to deliver “a message of hope to all victims of sexual violence” and to return to Gisèle Pelicot “a part of her stolen humanity. »
Two women facing each other, one who must take care of the interests of society and the other the quintessence of its disorder. Both having the heart of never losing sight of this third woman at the center of the tragedy, Gisèle Pelicot. Whose daily demonstrations of support from an army of anonymous women, songs, flowers, applause, try to prevent loneliness at all costs. In a trial which has the extremely rare distinction of having all the incontestable evidence of the alleged facts, how do we defend the accused? Because, as in many cases of sexual assault trials, it is not a question of discussing the versions, of comparing one word with another, of highlighting doubts. There is no doubt here. So how do we defend the devil? Remembering that the devil does not exist.
A childhood consisting of multiple sexual abuses and torture
Maître Zavarro undertook to tell the bar first, the story of the child that was Dominique Pelicot, who was allegedly raped at eight years old by a nurse when he was hospitalized, and of his trauma experienced at fourteen years old when he allegedly found himself forcibly involved in a gang rape on a construction site. And finally, the child subjected to the brutality and obscenity of a father, who mistreated him and his mother. Another wounded child also appeared, when Maître Gontard, who succeeded Maître Zavarro to plead the defense of Jean-Pierre M., in turn recounted the unspeakable childhood of his client, locked within him. A childhood consisting of multiple sexual abuses and torture. Because it was also about this, implicitly, in this last phase of the Mazan rape trial where the defenses of the accused will be heard: the extreme solitude of the abused child. “We are not born perverse, we become one. » quotes the lawyer.
What Dominique Pelicot did to his wife is beyond forgiveness. So we talk about humanity, because it is an oath of humanity that lawyers take when taking on this role, as Mr. Zavarro recalled. It recounts the criminal pattern of this man, who until November 2, 2020 appeared to his loved ones, family and friends, as an ideal man. “He will assume his fantasies. For what ? This is what is at stake in this trial. » Maître Zavarro deploys his arguments, with the restraint of one who knows how to move forward on extremely shifting terrain, by considering Pelicot's need to “magnify himself”, by sharing his wife.
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“This file, this presence, is perhaps his last erection”
All these men, the co-defendants, representing a “sublimating entity”. He who has been described as “directive”, a conductor, by almost everyone. “I’ll show you how to do it.” » The excitement that comes from being seen doing all these things, and acting ensemble. “Without the network, the Pelicot file does not exist,” said his lawyer. Messages on Coco, then on Skype and by phone: hundreds and hundreds of communications. We are no longer alone in our fantasies, we lift the taboo by breaking the solitude. Are we trivializing? Then we exchange photos and videos. We tell each other everything we would like to do in the crudest words, the web breaking down the filters of all indecency. We think we are strong and virile. And there's nothing like a boys club to enhance virility. The one that will soon be lacking in Dominique Pelicot, as we get older, as Master Zavarro suggests, we need “accomplices before our bodies age”. And the lawyer assumes audacity with this incredible question: “This file, this presence, it is perhaps his last erection. »
Maître Zavarro will raise other questions, which may make one shudder given the seriousness of the facts, but she is doing what she took her oath as a lawyer for and today she is teaching us a lesson. So, could we not detect a form of “protection” in Pelicot’s methodical actions? The instructions, always the same, to do it “gently”, not to be brutal. Even though it is a heinous form of protection. By putting his wife to sleep to carry out these outrages which are his fantasies, is he not trying, by making her unconscious, to ensure that she does not experience what his own mother and the woman raped on the construction site experienced? On the manipulative nature mentioned by almost all of the co-accused, Maître Zavarro recalls that the invitation made to these men would always have been explicit, without trying to catch them at fault, as evidenced by the discussions found by telephone or emails. . Coming to his house to abuse his sleeping wife. She points out the systematic free nature of this invitation, never any “financial compensation”.
Strange, chilling lyricism
The co-defendants, even if they spoke of “fear” of “fear of discomfort”, all admitted that Pelicot had never been violent, threatening or insulting towards them, nor had he prevented them from leaving his home. . These co-defendants who, for many, spoke of the “control” they had suffered. A hold in ten minutes? A certain number went so far as to form the hypothesis that they too could have been drugged by Pelicot, because they have “amnesia”, and do not understand how they were capable of doing what they are accused of, they had been in their normal state. However, the prosecution has pointed out that none of these men appear in any loss of means on the videos of the events. On the contrary. Perhaps not appreciating the outrageous irony of daring to call yourself a “victim drugged” by Pelicot, when we all know who the drugged victim in this trial is: Ms. Pelicot.
Maître Zavarro insisted on carrying the words of Dominique Pelicot on several occasions, writings produced in prison, in the form of poems, which he entrusted to him. These writings in which he speaks of his love for his mother and for his wife. Words with the strange, chilling lyricism of the one who destroyed everything. “One day we will see each other again, I hope we will be able to talk about all this. » Also of his children “who will not come to pay their respects at my grave, like me with my father”. He will be alone until he dies, he knows it. It is a sentence that cannot be quantified in number of years.
We, observers, find ourselves constantly amazed in this tension, this difficult balance of considering on the one hand the abyss of the individual alone, faced with the no lesser abyss of the societal upheaval that this individual has generated. We remember the words of Attorney General Chabaud calling this trial to be “a stone in the building of what others after us will build. » Summoning the court: “By your verdict, you will indicate that ordinary rape does not exist, you will indicate that accidental or involuntary rape does not exist. You will guide us in the education of our sons. And it is education that will drive change. » Maître Zavarro, for her part, recalled a sentence pronounced by one of the accused, Adrien L.: “My worst enemy is me. »The devil, then? Maybe he's the one who's his own worst enemy.