The Mazan rape trial continues. Many men, aged 26 to 74, are on trial in Avignon for the rape of Gisèle Pélicot. Among them, there is the victim’s husband, Dominique Pélicot, who is accused of having handed his wife over to men recruited on a dating site.
Facts which took place while she was unconscious. This Friday, October 11, a 40-year-old computer scientist admitted the facts. It was during confinement that he met “Dorian, retired doctor” aka Dominique Pélicot. He begins his testimony by stating: “I believe that M me Pelicot didn’t come to hear excuses. We’re not here for that. What we need is to give explanations”.
On the stand, this accused continues: “I didn’t go there to commit a crime. I was not aware that Madame was not consenting, I was convinced that they were accomplices”. Subsequently, he clarified that he was thinking of going to a “bourgeois couple, married for a long time. I can’t imagine that the husband would put his wife in danger and hurt her like that.” However, in the investigation file, messages exchanged between the accused and Dominique Pélicot are revealed. “I loaded her up with alcohol and what’s more, she just took her sleeping pill,” indicates Gisèle Pélicot’s husband.
Mazan rapes: shocking revelations during the trial
This message was sent on June 27, 2020 at 9:44 p.m. Dominique Pélicot also attaches photos of his naked wife. To which the accused asks: “Is the sleeping pill working? Let me know in advance because I still have a twenty minute drive.” The newspaper The World then specifies that a video is broadcast, in which the facts are confirmed. The media explains that, faced with these images, Dominique Pélicot lowers his eyes and sometimes covers his ears. HE doesn’t want to watch the scenes he shot, edited, titled and archived. He also does not answer questions asked about the images.
Other defendants took the stand, including a former truck driver. He remembers that, while he was undressing in the kitchen, Dominique Pélicot came to warn him that they were not alone. “You’ll see, there’s my wife, we’re doing a role play, she’s pretending to be asleep,” he said. For his part, the accused said he was not surprised by this announcement. “It didn’t bother me that much. It’s his house, his room, his bed, his wife. I trusted this gentleman”, he declared, specifying that he understood that “something serious had happened” when he found himself in police custody.
Gisèle Pélicot: a woman always present in court
Gisèle Pélicot never misses a day in this court.
Faced with the accused, she shows incredible strength and listens, on a daily basis, to the facts of which she was a victim. As the newspaper indicated, it was a mute and upright woman who attended the hearing. She listens to the answers, takes notes and sometimes speaks to the psychologist next to her. If certain accused try to speak to her, Gisèle Pélicot prefers to “look away” so as not to give them the slightest attention. “Between her and her ex-husband,” noted a defense lawyer, “there now remain fifty common enemies,” concludes the newspaper.
