Mazan rape trial: resumption of debates, in the absence of Dominique Pelicot

Jérôme V., 46 years old, Simone M., 43 years old, Adrien L., 34 years old: the Mazan rape trial opened its fifth week of hearing on Monday with the continuation of the parade of Dominique Pelicot’s 50 co-defendants, excused for the day for medical reasons.

“He is unwell. He must undergo a medical procedure this afternoon,” explained the president of the Vaucluse criminal court, Roger Arata, at the start of the hearing.

Dominique Pelicot, 71, had already undergone an examination on Friday, a day without a hearing. His lawyer, Me Béatrice Zavarro, told AFP on Sunday that it “went well”, expecting her client to be present on Monday.

The trial, which began on September 2 and was scheduled to last until December 20, had already been suspended for two days in mid-September due to the absence of Mr. Pelicot, who was unwell.

In his absence, the court therefore began on Monday to address the cases of a third group of co-defendants, seven of the fifty men whom Dominique Pelicot had invited on the internet, for ten years, from July 2011 to October 2020, to come raping his wife, after he had drugged her with anxiolytics.

Until then, the cases of ten co-accused had been studied.

Most of them are being prosecuted for aggravated rape, and they face up to 20 years of criminal imprisonment. Eighteen of these accused, including Dominique Pelicot, appear detained. Thirty-two others appear free, the last, on the run, being tried in absentia.

While waiting for these seven men to be questioned, presumably on Thursday, in the presence of Dominique Pelicot, the court began by dissecting their personalities and their life paths.

Jérôme V., 46 years old, former employee in a food store, is one of the main defendants in this extraordinary trial. According to the prosecution, he is one of four men who came six times to the couple’s marital home in Mazan (Vaucluse), in the south-east of France, in 2020, to rape Gisèle Pelicot.

A child victim of “psychological and verbal violence” from his parents, he is “pragmatic and utilitarian in his relationship with others”, explained the personality investigator, Elisa Scheidt. Passionate about “hiking and extra-marital affairs”, he had a “frustrated sexuality, which led him to seek satisfaction elsewhere”.

Father of three children, one of whom was illegitimate, he signed up as a volunteer firefighter. “A good excuse to approach women,” he explained to the investigator, wondering himself about a possible “sex addiction.”

“In terms of human relations, he was special” but “he had no reason to look elsewhere,” testified at the bar, in tears, his current partner, who continues to go see him in the visiting room. “I don’t understand why he didn’t tell me about Madame Gisèle,” she added, looking at her and “giving her all her support.”

The latter did not react.

The court also spoke about Simone M., 43, a construction worker after 12 years with the Alpine hunters. Presented as “someone who is easily influenced, naive”, he would have “sunk into alcohol” due to a life as a couple judged by those around him as “unbalanced and disharmonious”.

Adrien L., 34, from a “very stable” family background, presents “great narcissistic fragility”, according to investigator Marianne Douteau. Described as “mythomaniac” and “jealous” by an ex-partner, he has been imprisoned since 2020 and has already been sentenced to 14 years in prison for three previous rapes of his concubines.

On Monday, the court also heard personality investigations concerning four other defendants: Thierry P., a 61-year-old refrigeration craftsman, also indicted for possession of child pornography images; Jean T., 52 years old, alias “Bill”, former roofer, described by those around him as “helpful, courageous and kind”; Redouane E., 55 years old, liberal nurse with “many sexual needs”; or finally Thierry P., 54, a former mason who had fallen into alcoholism after the death of his 18-year-old son in a car accident.

Closed at 6 p.m. with no news on the health of Dominique Pelicot, the debates should resume Tuesday at 9 a.m. with the hearings of the three psychologists who examined this group of seven accused.