Mazan rape trial: the Pélicots, a broken family

Long Christmas tables, surprise birthdays, summer evenings in Mazan in the house with blue shutters surrounded by oleanders, holidays on the Ile de Ré with the grandchildren, nothing remains. All the family photo albums ended up in a dumpster. David, Caroline et Florianthe three Pélicot children, trashed them, as well as all the belongings that belonged to their father Dominique Pélicottried by the Avignon criminal court. It was four years ago. Their mother had just told them that their father had been drugging her for ten years in order to rape her and hand her over to strangers. After joining her at the Carpentras police station, they methodically, angrily, emptied the house. Two days later, when they returned to Paris with their mother, she only had a suitcase and her French bulldog. Fifty years of family life had just been liquidated.

It is terrible to have to mourn the loss of a father who is still alive. This is what, each in their own way, the Pélicot children told the court. The room was crowded, the atmosphere electric. First there is the eldest, David, 50 years old, sales promoter. As he enters the courtroom, he glares at his father. Physically, the two men look similar. Same build, same broad neck, eyebrows in circumflex accents. “I would like to tell this courtroom who I lost,” David says loudly. I lost a man who, like my mother, gave me a good education, values, a backbone. » Common passions brought them together – detective films and sport (tennis and football). The father was a supporter of Olympique de Marseille, the son of Paris Saint-Germain. When he was a teenager, the house was always open for friends who adored his father. All this is now a long way away. “My childhood has disappeared, it has been erased. »

“Have you wondered if you were the motive?”

Other images have since covered the memories, those found in Dominique Pélicot's computer, in particular those of his naked stepdaughters, taken without their knowledge in the bathroom. He photographed CelineDavid's wife, while she was pregnant. “How could you do such a thing? » growls David, leaning against the bar. Nathanthe couple's son, was three years old when his grandfather urged him to “play doctor.” No one knows what really happened. “If you still have a little humanity left, tell us the truth!” » implores David. In the accused box, Dominique Pélicot, on edge, loses his temper: “Nothing! Nothing ! I haven't done anything to my children or my grandchildren! »

In the Pélicot family, everyone has their own suffering, everyone has their own sleepless nights. With a fine face adorned with a salt-and-pepper beard, the youngest, Florian, 38, is haunted by his birth. “The artist of the family”, as he introduces himself, says he always knew that his mother had had an affair with a work colleague. “Today,” he says in disappointment, “I would like to know if my father is really my father, it’s still a shame! » No longer wearing the Pélicot name would be a “relief”. The question of this adultery has been raised many times, the Court seeing in it a possible desire for revenge on the part of the deceived husband. Me Antoine Camusthe children's and mother's lawyer, stands up: “Have you asked yourself if you were the motive? » Florian Pélicot returns the question to his father who, in a gesture of denial, repeats: “Absolutely not, absolutely not. »

The Mazan rape affair cost the youngest child “a divorce and a thousand questions”. His ex-wife Dawnsitting next to Gisèle Pélicot, looks at him with a mixture of shock and compassion. At the start of the trial, she recounted how one day she caught her stepfather masturbating in front of his computer screen. She was also the one who heard Dominique Pélicott suggest that little Nathan play doctor. At the time, being in proceedings against her own grandfather who had abused her as a child, she had kept silent, for fear of having a view biased by her personal history. Florian followed. “I blamed myself,” he regrets at the bar. It caused me a lot of disagreements with Céline and David. » Then, going from tears to anger, he calls out to his father: “The whole family exploded! How do we do it now? Do you have the solution? »

More ceremoniously, Caroline, the Pélicot daughter, wife Darian, declares with her head held high: “I consider myself the great forgotten person in this trial.” A reference to the two photos of her found on her father's computer. She appears asleep, wearing underwear that does not belong to her. She is convinced that she too was sedated and raped. “The only difference between my mother and me is the tangible evidence,” she proclaims, before detailing her stays in a psychiatric hospital following the “affair”. Me Camus urges Dominique Pélicot to tell the truth to his daughter: “If you leave her like this, you condemn her to perpetual hell.” The father maintains that he does not remember being the author of these photos: “I told her straight to her eyes that I never touched her! » Shouts ring out in the courtroom. “You’re lying!” You don't have the courage and love enough to say it! » screams Caroline Darian, red with anger, while the president tries, with a gesture of both hands, to appease her. “You have no face!” You will die a lie, you are alone Dominique Pélicot! » she says to her father.

“We are not in an intra-family trial”

The unhappiness expressed by the Pélicot children contrasts diametrically with the mother's sober attitude. Gisèle Pélicot does not feel sorry for herself. She has “neither hatred nor anger”. She is just trying to “understand” and yet does not mince her words. Faced with this apparent absence of emotion, his daughter Caroline Darian sees her father's influence over her mother. This is what she writes in her book And I stopped calling you Dadpublished two and a half years before the trial, against the advice of his mother. In the courtroom, the defense lawyers took advantage of the breach to criticize Gisèle Pélicot for being more lenient towards her ex-husband, despite being “at the head of the pyramid of evil”, than towards the fifty other accused. “He recognized it, not them,” she retorts.

A lawyer even accuses her of having only cried once – when discussing her ex-husband's childhood, before deploring that she is unable to “take the side” of her girl. “But which party? wonders Gisèle Pélicot. We are not in an intra-family trial. We are putting Mr. Pélicot and fifty individuals on trial in this room! » Another lawyer insists: “Don’t we retain an attachment to what has been our life for fifty years? » Gisèle Pélicot assumes: “I am a very positive person, I will keep the best in this man. » Her stoicism does not surprise her ex-husband. He describes her as a “strong” woman, a “reed that does not break”. And, returning to the motive of his actions, explains the source of what was “his fantasy”: “Submitting a rebellious woman. »