The children of Dominique and Gisèle Pelicot send a final request to their father

JUSTICE – Intimate and chilling words, in the middle of a packed Avignon court. While the last interrogations on the facts end before the pleadings and requisitions, the children of the main victim, Gisèle Pelicot, and her former husband, Dominique, accused of having raped her and having her raped by strangers for nearly 10 years using chemical submission, took the stand once again this Monday, November 18.

Among them, the eldest son, David, sent a request to his father, ordering him to “tell the truth”. Asked about his relationship with his father before discovering the extent of his crimes against his mother, David, 50, described a man who presented himself as a “ good father of a family » before recounting the horror of that day of November 2, 2020, when he learned the truth.

“I feel like my whole childhood is gone. She was almost erased,” insists David Pelicot. “This trial is that of an entire family, completely destroyed.”

While the president questions him about suspicions of sexual violence against his sister, Caroline Darian, the older brother turns to the accused box, where his father is standing. “I am speaking to you. If you still have a little humanity left, do you hear me? Tell the truth about what you did to my sister, who suffers every day and will suffer all her life! »he says.

By searching Dominique Pelicot's computer equipment, investigators found two photos of her daughter, Caroline, which the person said she did not remember. In one of them she appears naked and lying on a bed in a “ quasi-fetal ». A posture which is reminiscent of that of his ex-wife when she was drugged.

Despite the lack of evidence, Caroline Darian accuses her own father of having also been drugged without her knowledge to be raped. “I never touched my daughter”affirmed Dominique Pelicot several times during the trial.

“Now the silence is over”

While the septuagenarian tries to respond, David Pelicot continues: “I don’t think you’ll ever tell the truth!” Oh you can give yourself a posture: but I’m not finished”he says, before asking his father again to reveal the truth about his sister. Accusations that the main accused continues to reject en bloc. “I hope, I wish, even if I am nothing anymore, that one day you will have proof that nothing happened of all that you think,” assures Dominique Pelicot.

David ends by reiterating his support for Caroline Darian, before sending a message to women victims of sexual violence: “ I would like to say to all these women, who are mothers, who have daughters, young girls who will also become mothers and begin their lives as young women: please, do not be afraid anymore. Speak. Now the silence is over”he declares on the stand.

“You were the devil himself”

Like his big brother, Florian Pelicot, 38, also speaks directly to his father: “why did you do that?” Why did you lend our mother like that? » he asks, turning towards the accused box. “ You always said our mother was a saint. But you were the devil himself.”he asserts in front of the criminal court, recalling the difficulty of building oneself after these revelations.

Last point raised by David and Florian Pelicot: Could Dominique Pelicot have harmed his grandson, David's son? The grandfather would have indeed suggested that he “play doctor”, a conversation reported by Florian’s wife at the time, Aurore. But Florian Pelicot did not tell his brother about it. “I blamed myself for not having brought things up, for not having called my brother, there is a lot of guilt in all that”says Florian, moved.

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