“It is time that we change our outlook on rape,” argued Tuesday Gisèle Pelicot, for whom the trial of her husband and dozens of men accused of having raped her for ten years will remain that of a “society macho and patriarchal which trivializes sexual assault.
“For me, this trial will be the trial of cowardice,” repeated three times the main victim of this extraordinary case, facing her now ex-husband, Dominique Pelicot, head down in the dock. He admitted to having delivered her for a decade to strangers he recruited on the internet, after having bombarded her with anxiolytics.
“Since the start of this trial, I have heard a lot of things, it was inaudible…”, she continued: “I saw individuals taking the stand who deny rape”, for most of them, and “I have a lot of trouble facing this banality”.
“I want to say to these men: at what moment when you entered this room did Ms. Pelicot give you consent? At what moment, faced with this inert body, did you become conscious?”
“I heard: 'I was remote-controlled', I heard: 'I drank a glass of water, I was drugged'. But when did they not hit?” is rebellious, the septuagenarian, who has become a true feminist icon since the start of this long trial, on September 2, before the Vaucluse criminal court in Avignon.
“There are few who take responsibility for their actions. They raped! I hear this gentleman saying 'a finger is not rape'. Let him wonder!” she snapped.
The last of the 51 accused to take the stand Tuesday morning, just before she took the floor, Philippe L., 62, had adopted this same line of defense, explaining that he was “under the orders” of Dominique Pelicot, a “demon”, and who he then believed to be participating in the scenario of a libertine couple where the woman pretended to be sleeping.
– “I don't think anymore” –
“I don't think about it anymore. (…) I don't know that I'm doing something unhealthy. I'll know later,” explained this single man who makes his living from gardening work. “I don’t know that I’m dealing with a demon, an evil being. It’s only after…”, he tried to justify, pointing to Dominique Pelicot.
Prosecuted for “aggravated rape”, he faces, like most of the 51 accused, 20 years of criminal imprisonment.
Questioned by several defense lawyers, Ms. Pelicot once again firmly defended herself from having been “under the influence” or “manipulated” by her husband, during their 50 years of life together: “Absolutely nothing put me beware!”, she repeated.
“Mr. Pelicot had a lot of fantasies, all of which I couldn't satisfy with him. (…) As I didn't want to go to a swingers club, he said he found the solution by putting me to sleep! I I lost 10 years of my life that I will never get back! This scar will never heal!”, she blurted out, barely holding back her anger.
With the interrogation of Philippe L. on Tuesday morning, this so-called “Mazan rape” trial, emblematic of sexual violence and chemical submission, has now finished examining the cases of 51 men, aged 26 to 74. , living mainly in Vaucluse and its surroundings.
Ten had returned several times, at the invitation of Dominique Pelicot, up to six times for some.
Few of these accused presented a real apology to Gisèle Pelicot, even after being confronted with videos of their actions, projected in court, staggering images in which their victim appears totally inert.
Unanimously described as “the conductor” in this case, Dominique Pelicot, 71, was the first to testify, at the beginning of September, without really explaining the reasons for this drift which had accelerated over the years, with some 200 rapes in total, half by himself.
He is expected to speak for the last time on the facts Tuesday afternoon.
The trial will then enter its final phase from Wednesday, with the start of the civil parties' pleadings, before probably being suspended until Monday to allow the prosecution to prepare its requisitions, which would extend over three days.
Then the defense arguments will begin, for three weeks, starting with those of Me Béatrice Zavarro, Dominique Pelicot's lawyer.
There will then be one week left for the court's five professional magistrates to deliberate, with a verdict expected on December 20 at the latest.
