Stéphane Babonneau, the second lawyer for the civil parties, tried hard to extract him from this spiral of denials: “There are so many acts that your position is incomprehensible. […] This trial is also a hand extended to you. You have the opportunity in this room to admit that you raped Ms. Pelicot.” During two hours of interrogation, Romain V. will never grab this hand. “I had no intention of raping Ms. Pelicot. I was raped as a child, assaulted, beaten,” he insists for the umpteenth time, his back bent. His psychological expertise and his personality investigation revealed a trajectory marked by multiple abuses suffered as a child, including sexual violence inflicted by “so-called friends” of his parents. “You know what rape is then?” Babonneau reacted.
Two co-defendants use the same argument at the Mazan rape trial and demand the broadcast of the images: “It misled me”
“Lien social”
The few videos, broadcast at the request of the civil parties as well as the public prosecutor, will not change his position. This man, on disability since 2011, single and without children, will not give up: he was looking for “a simple social lie”, has “break your solitude”. In the images, Gisèle Pelicot is lying on her back, face visible, unconscious. Her snoring even drowns out the sound of the TV when Romain V. imposes digital, vaginal and oral penetration on her, leaving her on the verge of suffocation. A close-up of his face shows his attacker slightly smiling, an image contrasting with the dejected expression he displays in the dock. He assures that he did not get any “pleasure”.
Romain V. had been visiting the Coco site for a year when he came into contact with Dominique Pelicot. After an exchange of photos, a meeting was agreed with him at the supermarket to “see” Gisèle Pelicot. No words are exchanged between them. Romain V. denies even considering at that time a “sexual relationship”. “I thought it could be a person who was also looking for social connections,” he tries, not catching his inconsistencies. “I still don't understand why you don't bring it up then?” replied an assessor. “[Parce que] I don't know her and [que] I'm shy”, he replies.
During his first visit to Mazan, on the night of December 8 to 9, 2019, he followed the indicated protocol. He undresses, warms his hands and walks towards the bedroom in silence. He thinks of a “semi-awakening” caused by the “fatigue”. “You had the same feeling every time, of semi-awakening from fatigue, seriously?” annoys President Roger Arata. The accused takes refuge behind memory loss. “When you see her sleeping, you don’t ask Mr. Pelicot a question, why?” Antoine Camus tells him. Romain V. once again pleads the absence of free will: “He asks me to continue so I stupidly continue.” Before being taken up by Antoine Camus: “He would have asked you to throw yourself out of the window, you wouldn’t have thrown yourself out of the window.”
At the Mazan rape trial, faces froze: “Don’t hesitate to get out”
“I am non-contagious”
Like several of the 50 co-accused, he also tries the thesis of consent by proxy. This time, it is the free will of women, in this case Gisèle Pelicot, that he sets out to deny. “The husband being present, a husband speaks to his wife, I thought I had permission.” Romain V. digresses, often places himself at the center of the debates, regularly mentions his health problems, his sleep apnea, his heavy treatments leaving him “confused”. Romain V. has been carrying HIV since 2004, under triple therapy since 2005. He did not wear a condom, like the majority of the other accused. And had not informed Dominique Pelicot of his HIV status. Supported by his lawyer Louis-Alain Lemaire, noting his regular monitoring with analyses, he nevertheless reframes: “The viral load is stable, I am non-contagious.”
The versions of the two men differ on the cessation of his visits. Dominique Pelicot claims to have put an end to it on September 15, 2020, following his first arrest of which he informed him. For Romain V., the decision would have come when he “realized that there was no social connection, that there were no outings.” He continues: “I was waiting to go to the theater, to the cinema, to take a walk. I was looking for social connection, I told myself that maybe we had to go through what happened.” He himself hardly seems to believe it. “I realized that the sixth time, it’s still very unfortunate.”
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