He had not yet explained himself since the opening of his trial two weeks ago. Domiique Pélicot, tried before the criminal court of Vaucluse for having drugged and raped his wife Gisèle for 10 years, in the Paris region and then at his home in Mazan, was finally declared fit to appear by the doctors.
This Tuesday, Dominique Pélicot not only asked for forgiveness, but also charged the 50 other accused, sobs in his voice when he evoked the memories of his “ideal family“. “It was me who wasn’t.“, he specifies. He also has a clearer tone when accusing the other accused: “I am a rapist, like everyone else concerned here.“, he insists, specifying: “We are not born perverts, we become perverts.“.
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“I have to pay”
Pélicot tells his life, his two scenes of sexual assault in his youth, like a matrix of what he has become; and this meeting one day, with a man who shows him how to do it, who makes him fall “in addiction“, he always repeats.”I tried to stop, I couldn’t, I realized that I wasn’t normal, that it had to stop.“.
Very quickly, it is also the image of the good husband which takes over: “I never considered my wife as an object“, defends Pélicot,”I was there to protect her“, he assures, before opportunely adding: “Even if everything shows the opposite“. He concludes: “My wife was the most wonderful. I ruined everything, lost everything, I have to pay“.
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“She is nothing but a victim”
The wife and victim, Gisèle Pélicot, spoke out, briefly speaking at the hearing to say that it was difficult for her to hear that he was aware of everything, she who had total confidence in this man.Why didn’t you find the strength to stop?” ask the lawyers.”Because the addiction was stronger“, answers Dominique Pélicot.
“Now I want to fight so that everyone understands that she is nothing but a victim in this case.“, he added. At the end of the morning hearing, the large audience applauded Gisèle Pélicot in the public lounge of the Avignon court.
