according to the court, at the time of the events, all the accused could understand that it was rape

After the verdict of the Mazan trial and the conviction of the 51 accused, let us return to the motivation of the court. According to her, each of these men had free will and sufficient capacity for discernment, at the time of the events, to understand that it was indeed rape.

For ten years, Dominique Pelicot unknowingly drugged, then raped and invited dozens of strangers, recruited on the internet, to rape his ex-wife, Gisèle. Thursday, December 19 in Avignon, the criminal court rendered a historic verdict, after four months of hearings, and convicted the 51 accused in this sprawling case of the Mazan rapes. The sentences range from three years in prison, two of which are suspended, to 20 years of criminal imprisonment, and conclude a trial, a symbol of the fight against sexual violence against women.

According to the statement of reasons for the judgment, consulted by AFP, the main accused, Dominique Pelicot, was able to influence his co-defendants, but they, to whom he handed over his previously drugged wife, could all “understand the situation” and understand that it was rape.

In this 106-page document, which demonstrates the necessary individualization of sentences, the court emphasizes that “split personality“by Dominique Pelicot”allowed him to 'display' and hide his obsessive sexuality, his fantasies and deviant sexual activities, both from his wife and his family“.

It is stipulated that if he “was able to incite or even influence his co-defendants in committing the act“, serving his side”manipulator” demonstrated by the expert reports, it has not been established that all the co-defendants were informed in advance that Gisèle Pelicot would be drugged.
Many defendants have in fact claimed to have been led by Dominique Pelicot to think of participating in the fantasy of a libertine couple. The main accused, on the contrary, assured that they were all fully informed of the situation.

In summary, however, the court judges that are you Dominique Pelicot”was able to use stratagems with regard to his contacts (…), at the date of the facts, each of the accused had his free will and sufficient capacity for discernment.

“Everyone was able to fully understand the situation they found themselves confronted with when they approached the inert body of Gisèle Pelicot.”

Roger Arata, president of the Vaucluse criminal court

Extract from the motivation sheet

The court therefore retains for all the accused both the “chemical stress“and the”surprise”which apply according to case law to an act carried out during the victim's sleep and are two of the legally constituting elements of rape.

The court also rejects any idea of ​​”consent by proxy ” or from “presumption of consent on the part of a totally unconscious victim“, some defendants having said they thought that Gisèle Pelicot agreed, since her husband had assured them so.
“Each of them (…) being sufficiently informed of the state of unconsciousness of Gisèle Pelicot and having the possibility of interrupting their action at any time and at the sight of an inert and unconscious woman, deliberately circumvented the free consent of the victim by imposing sexual acts on her“.

>>> To read: also: “Chemical submission is indisputable”: at the Mazan trial, the absence of consent and the search for consent, at the heart of the requisitions

“The intentional element – without which no crime exists – is therefore reported here and establishes the guilt of each person.“, underlines in this document the president of the court, Roger Arata, while the defense of several accused pleaded for acquittal in the name of the absence of intention to commit rape.
If the conviction of all the accused was welcomed, feminist associations regretted after the verdict that the court had handed down less severe sentences than those requested by the prosecution. TAll of the convicted defendants did not have a warrant out for their arrest, meaning they will not have to return to prison.