The cases of eight men are being examined this week by the Vaucluse criminal court as part of the Pelicot trial. Among them, one accused is tried in his absence.
Eight of them were tried this week by the Vaucluse departmental criminal court as the Mazan rape trial resumes this Monday, November 4 after a week of interruption. The court will examine the cases of these eight co-accused of Dominique Pelicot out of the 50 tried since September 2. This is the penultimate group examined before the requisitions, the pleadings, while the verdict is expected for December 20.
Gisèle Pelicot is present again for the resumption of the hearing this Monday. “It's a marathon, […] but she remains combative and determined to go to the end, because she is carried by this outpouring of support which goes beyond the borders of France,” explained Me Antoine Camus, one of her lawyers.
The first case judged by the Vaucluse criminal court this Monday is that of Cendric V., a 42-year-old restaurant manager. He is on trial for rape, facts dating from July 21, 2016 and January 18, 2018. Orphaned by his father since childhood, Cendric V. had two children, from two different relationships. Concerning the facts, the expert psychiatrist noted a “search for immediate pleasure”, despite the observation on his arrival that Gisèle Pelicot was sleeping. This man has always maintained that he was not warned of a chemical submission imposed by Dominique Pelicot.
A “disciple” of Pelicot
The court will also look into the case of Ludovick B., a 41-year-old unemployed temporary worker. He is suspected of having raped Gisèle Pelicot in 2019, with the complicity of Dominique Pelicot, at the home of their own daughter, Caroline Darian, in the Paris region. Like others, the accused adopted a “victim and self-centered” position, notes the expert psychiatrist. During the judicial investigation, Ludovick B. revealed that he had been the victim of serious acts, namely sexual assaults committed by the father of a friend. This man, Fabrice Motch, convicted of raping nine teenagers, was also sentenced to life imprisonment for an assassination in 1996.
Cédric G., a 50-year-old computer technician, is on trial for a rape of Gisèle Pelicot committed on the night of October 3 to 4, 2017. A chronic consumer of pornographic and erotic images, accustomed to libertine experiences, the fifty-year-old is described as having a “propensity to use others as an object”. He is one of the only ones to admit to having been warned that Gisèle Pelicot would be drugged by her husband to rape her and have her raped. Cédric G., “disciple” of Dominique Pelicot, had also planned to reproduce the same process of chemical submission on his own wife.
Saifeddine G., a 36-year-old truck driver, came to the Pelicot home in Mazan on the night of November 2 to 3, 2019. Married and father of three children, the man expressed feelings of shame and guilt to the expert psychologist. His act could be explained, according to experts, by a feeling of emptiness in his intimate life. However, the accused denies any penetration, which the videos contradict. To investigators and judges, he assured that he thought Gisèle Pelicot was pretending to sleep. Here again several elements contradict this position.
An HIV-positive accused who came 6 times
Paul G. is one of the youngest defendants. A worker now aged 31, he was 22 at the time of the acts with which he is accused. He is accused of rape of Gisèle Pelicot, acts committed on the night of November 23 to 24, 2017. He also admits the facts. Omar D., a 36-year-old maintenance worker, blames the Pelicot couple, whom he describes as libertines. He claims to have acted on the husband's orders when he showed up at Mazan's home on the night of June 28 to 29, 2019, explaining that Dominique Pelicot had told him that his wife would be sleeping.
The dangerousness of Romain V. became apparent to the experts. The man, a 63-year-old HIV-positive single man, went to Mazan six times, without ever wearing a condom. The man came to the Pelicot home between December 2019 and June 2020. Faced with the experts, he trivialized his involvement and his responsibility in the facts with which he is accused.
Finally, one of the accused Hassan O., 30 years old, still subject to an international arrest warrant, will be tried in absentia.
