Four years in prison with warrant of committal. When Joseph C.'s sentence was announced, the accused and their counsel undoubtedly understood the path that the requisitions were going to take. He is in fact the only one to appear for sexual assault and to face 7 years in prison compared to 20 years for the 50 other accused. The rest of the speech by Jean-François Mayet and Laure Chabaud was in the same vein. No sentence required below 10 years and up to 17 years for the co-defendants, the maximum sentence for Dominique Pelicot, 20 years old.
“The sword of public opinion in the back”
All this while the profiles studied yesterday were mainly those of individuals accused of rape, only one of whom is in pre-trial detention. “The prosecution demanded with the saber of public opinion at its back“, said during a suspension the President of the Bar, Patrick Gontard, lawyer for one of the accused. A vision shared by the President of the Bar, Louis-Alain Lemaire, who assists four defendants: “Require 10 years for certain individuals of whom the prosecution admitted that there had been no act of penetration, most of whom have never been convicted, all perfectly inserted, we judge by opinion public, and we cannot, in our defense, accept that. And I'm very worried about what happens next. It's absolutely mind-boggling.”
“Not the project but the awareness of the act”
The prosecution representatives, of course, gave reasons for their conclusions. Returning to extremely serious facts, which are moreover documented and which have made it possible to go beyond the traditional word for word. Faced with the crudeness of the scenes broadcast to the audience, they felt that it was necessary to hit hard. And the lack of recognition of the facts also seems to have weighed heavily on many of those involved. Historically, this extraordinary trial in so many aspects could also be that of calling into question the scale of penalties which usually prevails in rape cases. In any case, this is undoubtedly the vision of the prosecution, which will continue in the same direction today for the following thirty defendants, some of whom have come up to six times and admit to having raped Gisèle Pelicot. Yesterday morning, the advocates general also had to brush aside certain arguments. With firstly that of the absence of intention invoked by many of the accused. “It is at the moment of the act that we must place ourselves to examine the intentionrecalled Laure Chabaud. They did not have the project but the awareness of the act. Sexual acts by coercion, violence, threat or surprise, therefore without consent.“And to say that they thought the victim consented can no longer be an audible defense for the attorney general:”In 2024 we can no longer consider that because she said nothing she agreed, it is a way of thinking from another age that our law no longer validates. There was nothing ambiguous either in the context or in Gisèle Pelicot's attitude that could lead them to believe that she agreed.“
The attorney general also dismissed the argument of a possible psychological or chemical influence of the main accused over the others involved: “A so-called script is not stronger than free will. Everyone had the choice to leave if it did not suit them, everyone chose to stay to pursue their goal of personal satisfaction.”
