Andrew Harding
Paris correspondent, reporting from Avignon
On the eve of the verdicts, one of the accused – a man who has already pleaded guilty to raping Gisèle Pelicot – lashed out at a “botched” and hurried mass trial involving all 51 accused.
The man, who we’ve agreed not to name as a condition for the interview, spoke to us through his daughter who also wished to remain anonymous.
The two were clearly close, and both sobbed as they contemplated a long and sleepless night followed by the possibility of a twelve-year prison sentence for the father, which is what the prosecution has demanded.
“There was not enough time (at the trial). For me it was botched work. Many people made their minds up right away,” said the daughter, sitting beside her father at their lawyer’s office in Avignon.
“I don’t say it is a total injustice. I admit that (my father) should perhaps be punished. He should have realised (that Gisèle Pelicot was not a consenting participant) and he should be punished for that. But he is someone who does not deserve prison at all. Ten years, fifteen years in prison, that’s not okay. It’s not fair,” said the daughter.
The accused, who was filmed performing a variety of sex acts on Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious body, spent eight months in prison before being released on bail ahead of the trial.
Through his daughter, the man argued, as so many of the accused have done, that he was “tricked” by Dominique Pelicot, and firmly believed that he was going to the couple’s house for a swinger’s threesome involving a fantasy that the woman – Gisèle Pelicot – would be asleep throughout.
“His first words to us (after his arrest) were ‘it’s not what you think, it’s not what they’ve told you, that’s not it,’” she said.
“My dad would not be (on trial) without Dominique Pelicot, of course. There would have been none of this. So, he is a victim, of course.”
