Anne Cadiot-Feidt, lawyer for the alleged victim of the ex-Grenoble players, spoke about her client's state of mind. She returned to the question of consent in response to the first words of Denis Couslon's lawyer who had expressed doubt about the young girl's non-agreement.
How do you qualify the start of the trial? In what climate, in what atmosphere did it start?
It is a climate made, I would say, of objectivity and impartiality, led by the president of the Assize Court. We truly experienced the opening of the trial with the expectation of testimonies, expert opinions and questions that could be asked by one or the other, obviously linked to the characterization of the facts as they appear in the charge.
What state of mind was your client in, she who saw the accused again today?
She is still in this state which is that of non-revenge, which I think is very important for her. It hasn't been changed. She is also awaiting what the court decision will be.
This Tuesday Denis Coulson, Rory Grice and Loick Jammes will be submitted to the personality questionnaire. It will be a matter of jurors and magistrates understanding who is in front of themhttps://t.co/MGg6UfCGIJ
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We feel that consent is really at the heart of the debates. The Defense told us that already in her first testimony when she filed the complaint, she herself questioned the fact that she could have consented. She talked about blackout due to alcohol, but not necessarily non-consent, what do you think?
Consent is when you say yes! When we say nothing, and we say no, that means we are not consentingperhaps we will stop splitting hairs. In the current definition of rape, there is also the word surprise, the word “surprise”, not taken in the narrowest sense possible, but in the sense of the French word, that is to say when the We surprise others when they don't expect it and when they don't have time to react, or when they can't react.
So the definition is there. And in this case, but this is my position as lawyer for the civil party, I consider that there was no consent and that there was not even the possibility of consent with regard to the physical physiological state of my client.
More the défense said, she said yes, but she forgot that she said yes.
You'll have to tell me when she said yes. This is the Defense argument. The Defense has the right to argue as it wishes, the trial begins and that is the subject of the trial.
So you asked for a closed session. This closed session caused astonishment among the defenders. Are you surprised to cet astonishment?
No, the closed session is consistent with what a 27 or 28 year old woman may experience, when the extremely traumatic events of which she was the victim when she was 20 are finally brought up. 20 years, 27 and a half years, 28 years, those eight years are enormous. At this age, we truly leave childhood behind and enter the state of a young woman. How do we deal with this state of intimacy? I think that the closed session is as much linked to itself as it is linked to the fact of not making things public with regard to society. It becomes an intimate affair again.
