This Monday marked the start of the eleventh week of the Mazan rape trial. The morning was devoted to the end of the interrogations of the seven accused whose cases have been examined since Tuesday, November 12. The case of the 51 accused was thus mentioned. The trial has entered a new phase. And the floor was given to the children of the Pelicot couple.
At the start of the trial, the two sons, David and Florian could not be heard et their sister, Caroline, wanted to speak out again. Gisèle Pelicot could also do it if she wanted. Before the hearing was suspended on Friday, her lawyers indicated that at this stage she did not wish to speak. But it will finally intervene on Tuesday.
“Make everything that binds us to this man disappear” says David Pelicot
The floor was therefore given to the couple's children. David Pelicot, aged 50, intervened, “As a preamble, I would like to highlight and thank all police personnel who have done a remarkable job of investigating this horrible family affair which is unfortunately ours. If Mom is with us in this room today, it is partly thanks to them. If there is this trial, it is also partly thanks to them. “
“Since November 2, 2020, our family life was destroyed. We experienced a huge tsunami and everyone knows where and who it was with.” David Pelicot said he was at home when his mother told him what was happening and he vomited. He mentioned his father, saying “this gentleman“. Dominique Pelicot lowered his head and looked at his shoes.
David Pelicot recounted the weekend in Mazan with his brother and sister just after the discovery of the facts: “We decide to make everything that binds us to this man disappear. We lightened this house in two days. Everything about this man had to go. Today we do not have no more photos from family albums.”
David Pelicot demanded “the truth” from his father
And then, the tone rose. David Pelicot continued, “what I expect from this trial is that the decisions you will have to make will be to the height of our suffering. May these men behind my back and this man in this box be punished for the horrors and atrocities they committed on my mother.”
David Pelicot raised his voice and turned to his father. “That if you still have a little humanity, you hear me, you tell the truth about the actions you had towards my sister who suffers every day. Because I don't think you'll ever tell the truth. I'll only come by once and I want you to remember that. If you have any humanity left, tell us what you did to my son and my sister.”
From his box, Dominique Pelicot shouted “Nothing, nothing“. And David Pelicot took over. “He's been in this posture for two months, it's unbearable. To conclude, I would like to say that my sister is fighting a fightone of the most difficult of his life“Caroline Pelicot was in tears.
“I would like to have a thought and tell her that we will always be there for her. I would also like to say to all those women who are mothers, who have daughters who will become mothers and begin their life as young girls: please, don't be afraid anymore, speak up. The silence is over. We need to talk.”
Dominque Pelicot replied, “I gave the maximum of what I could to my children, of which you are one, and to my grandchildren. I maintain, I hope, I wish, even if I am no longer here, that one day you will have proof that nothing happened“He asked his son to please accept an apology, but David cut him off to say “Never“.
Florian Pelicot also demands the truth for his sister
Then it was Florian Pelicot’s turn. During his deposition, he explained, “Today, we are all suffering. Just, I would like to understand why“. He then turned to his father: “And if you have a little humanity, some dignity, you have nothing to lose. You always told me that we make choices in life. Tell Caroline the truth.
You can tell me what you want, you avoid debates, but be honest with yourself and tell the truth. Because we are all in survival, but Caro, she is no longer alive todayit could burst at any moment. So how do we do it? Do you have the solution? No, you don't have the solution, so we have to make do.”
“What I expect from this trial is that the sentences are exemplary, that the victims no longer remain silent and have the courage to speak. But above all, I have a deep disgust to hear for two months that my mother is an accomplice, my mother is a libertine, my mother is an alcoholic, it's shocking. All the people behind me who are strutting around and are like in a playground, I think they have forgotten that we are not playing, but thatyou have to take responsibility.”
A paternity test for “my quest for identity”
And Florian explained that he was going to request a paternity test for find out if he is the son of Dominique Pelicot (her birth is close in time to the moment when Gisèle had an affair with a work colleague, even if she assures that it was after Florian's birth). “I need to do this test. I want to remove the doubt. It's not easy to be Dominique Pelicot's son today, I tell you.”
“Would it be a relief not to be his son?” one of his lawyers asked him. “It would be a relief, yes, not to be his son. Either way, I need an answer. If my father, who I believe to be my father, is willing, it would remove a big doubt that is ruining my life. I don't sleep much at night anymore. It's part of my quest for identity. I want to be clear with myself, it's part of the truth that I ask today.”
“I consider myself the great forgotten person in this trial” says Caroline
In turn, Caroline Darian, the daughter, spoke on the question of chemical submission, “I consider myself the great forgotten person in this trial“. And she added “you had an incestuous look, I know that you had desires and that in addition you drugged me and that you abused me. I am committed to all women victims.
But there is no such thing as Gisèle Pelicot. It's 1%. This is the trial of an entire family and the historic trial of chemical submission and I am working behind the scenes. Gisèle, she was chemically raped, but the only difference between her and me is the lack of evidence against me. For me it's an absolute tragedy“, she explained.
Et Gisèle will be heard on Tuesday. The floor will be given to him, then to Dominique Pelicot.
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