at the Mazan rape trial, up to 13 years in prison required against the first co-defendants

Narrative The maximum sentence of 20 years was requested on Monday November 25 against Dominique Pelicot, accused of having drugged and raped Gisèle Pelicot before handing her over to fifty men. Requisitions ranging from 4 to 13 years in prison were also requested against 20 other defendants.

Unsurprisingly, the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison was requested by the prosecution, this Monday, November 25, against Dominique Pelicot who did not particularly react from his glass box. “ 20 years is both a lot, because 20 years of a life, whatever its age, is not nothing, but it is also too little considering the seriousness of the repeated acts committed”declared in front of him, before the departmental criminal court of Vaucluse, the vice-prosecutor Laure Chabaud – she also requested that he be subject, at the end of his sentence, to a re-examination with a view to a possible measure security retention.

Without the insight of a security guard in a supermarket in Carpentras, on September 12, 2020, underlined the magistrate in a packed room, Dominique Pelicot, 71 years old, “keystone of the entire file”whose court has “attempted to unravel the motive for the abject actions, and to unravel the complex personality”, would not have been unmasked. Nor would the more than 20,000 photos and videos updated by investigators from his computer equipment have been found, including many videos that he “compulsively archived”other specificity and second “keystone” of this file.

Documented rapes

“Pictures are worth a thousand words”declared Laure Chabaud, recalling the unbearable images of Gisèle Pelicot, one Christmas Eve, on her sofa, in a state of semi-consciousness, asking her husband to leave her alone while he “only heard his thirst for sex and submission”. Dominique Pelicot, who drugged his wife to the point of unconsciousness for nearly ten years, subjected her to nearly 200 rapes. And presented to the court last Tuesday as his motive his fantasy of “ subdue a rebellious woman ».

Recalling his personality “structured in a perverse way” and the “cleavage”this “double facet” well that “reductive” which characterizes him, the Advocate General, considering that he only sought “one’s own pleasure” away there “submission, even degradation” of his ex-wife, wondered: “Why her? Because it was easier to drug a woman who shares your life than a third person”she declared, adding that it was not necessary “underestimate the impact of his wife’s extramarital affair”.

Also read

« It is not impossible that he could have been unconsciously ruminating all these years about a desire for revenge.she said, emphasizing sexuality “with multiple deviances” of the main accused and his high level of criminological dangerousness. Concerning her daughter Caroline, whose suffering and anger inhabited the court, convinced of having been drugged and abused by her father since the discovery of photos of her naked and sleeping, Laure Chabaud declared that no element allowing her “pain in finding a legal translation” had not been found. “Which does not mean that we minimize our suffering”added the magistrate in her absence.

The question of the intention of the accused

The deputy prosecutor focused on the intentional element contested by the majority of the accused who, one after the other, affirmed in court that they recognized the materiality of the facts, not the intention to commit them. “We heard them repeating like a mantra “I recognize the actions, not the intention”, “I did not go with the intention of raping a woman” », recalled Laure Chabaud, but that “cannot be used to say that the offense is not serious and to exonerate the accused from his responsibility, because it is at the moment of the act that we must judge the intention”.

According to the law, rape is an act committed by violence, threat, surprise or coercion, she recalled, adding that “the absence of consent could not be ignored by the accused”. She also recalled the inertia of the victim's body, its “signs of choking”his snoring. “Everyone had the ability to get out of this situationshe said. Everyone chose to stay, ignore the victim and pursue their goal of personal satisfaction. » As for the hypothesis put forward by several defendants according to which Dominique Pelicot would have drugged them, she brushed it aside: “There is no evidence to support this. »

A prison sentence of 17 years was requested against Jean-Pierre M., 63 years old, to the right of Dominique Pelicot in the box, the only accused not to be prosecuted for aggravated rape of Gisèle Pelicot but of his own wife, whose testimony at the start of the trial shocked the court. He is accused of having Dominique Pelicot come to his home over several years to rape her, imitating his scenario. Against Joseph C., 69 years old, the only one of the accused to be prosecuted for “sexual assault in a meeting” and not for rape or attempted rape, the prosecution requested four years in prison and a committal warrant.

Then the requisitions continued, all day Monday, and were similar. At an average of a quarter of an hour per accused, sometimes ten minutes, or eight, sentences of 10 years were required against eleven of them, 11 years against two others, 12 against four, 13 years against one .

“Severity” of requisitions

The accused for whom the 10-year sentences were requested are Didier S., a 68-year-old retiree accused of aggravated rape – the statement of the requisitions concerning him, the first case studied after Joseph C., aroused a hubbub of surprise in the room -, Patrick A., 60 years old, unemployed, accused of aggravated rape, Jacques C. retired, 72 years old, accused of aggravated rape (by administering a substance and in a meeting), and “even if penetration directly by him is not established”Hugues M. 39-year-old tiler accused of attempted aggravated rape, Jean-Marc L., 74-year-old retiree accused of aggravated rape, Saïffedine G., 37-year-old truck driver accused of attempted aggravated rape (for him the facts have been reclassified), Simone M., 43 years old, construction worker, accused of aggravated rape, Philippe L., 62 year old electrician, accused of aggravated rape, Paul G., 31 years old, accused of aggravated rape, Ludovick B., 39 years old, warehouse worker, accused of aggravated rape, Mathieu D., 53 years old, accused of aggravated rape.

The defendants for whom the 11-year sentences were requested are Andy R., unemployed, 37 years old, accused of aggravated rape, and Quentin H., former prison guard, 34 years old, accused of aggravated rape. The four accused for whom 12-year sentences were requested are Patrice N., a 55-year-old electrician, accused of aggravated rape, Husamettin D., a 43-year-old construction worker, accused of aggravated rape, Cyrille D., 54 years old. , employed in the construction industry, accused of aggravated rape, and Redouane E., 55-year-old nurse, accused of aggravated rape. A sentence of 13 years was requested against Nizar H., 41 years old, detained, unemployed, accused of aggravated rape. Everyone went once to see Dominique Pelicot.

Also read

In the Salle des Pas Perdus, Louis-Alain Lemaire, lawyer for several defendants, was surprised, in these terms, “compared with much more serious cases”of the “severity” requisitions. “An extraordinary trial, out of proportion requisitions”declared Patrick Gontard, lawyer for Jean-Pierre M., considering that the prosecution had requested “in the name of public opinion”.

When the hearing was adjourned and Gisèle Pelicot came out, she was applauded for a long time by a large audience present to support her. “Well done Gisèle! “, one woman shouted as another handed her a large bouquet of flowers. In front of the courthouse, where the banner “20 years for each” was posted Monday morning, several dozen feminist activists brandished signs on which one could read “Stop the rape”, “Rapists we see you”, “Maximum expected sentence” or “Stop rape culture”. The indictment, conducted sternly by the attorneys general, is scheduled to last until Wednesday, November 27 at noon. Before the pleadings of Dominique Pelicot's lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, scheduled just after.