Mazan rape trial | Gisèle Pelicot denounces a “macho and patriarchal society”

(Avignon) Two speeches opposed the trial of serial rapes in France on Tuesday: that of the victim, Gisèle Pelicot, castigating a “macho and patriarchal” society, and that of the conductor of her rapes, her ex-husband , Dominique Pelicot, who pleaded the “fantasy” of “subduing a rebellious woman”.

Fifty-one defendants aged 26 to 74 have been on trial for more than two months in this trial emblematic of the questions of chemical submission and consent, most of them for having raped this 71-year-old woman, previously sedated with anxiolytics by her now ex-husband, who also raped her.

“It is time that we change our outlook on rape,” argued Gisèle Pelicot, on the last day of the debates on the facts, before the criminal court of Vaucluse, in Avignon (South).

For her, the trial of her ex-husband and the dozens of men recruited on the internet to whom she was delivered, over ten years, will remain that of a “macho and patriarchal society, which trivializes rape”.

“The trial of cowardice,” the septuagenarian repeated three times. Facing her, in the accused box, Dominique Pelicot lowered his head.

“Since the start of this trial, I have heard many things, [mais] it was inaudible…” insisted Gisèle Pelicot, who has become a true feminist icon since the start of the debates on September 2, when she refused to go behind closed doors.

“I heard: “I was remote controlled”, I heard: “I drank a glass of water, I was drugged”. But when did they not hit? “, she protested. “They raped!” I hear this gentleman saying, “a finger is not rape”. Let him wonder! », she snapped.

“A demon”

Last of the 51 accused to take the stand Tuesday morning, just before she took the floor, Philippe L., 62, had adopted this same line of defense, assuring that he was “under the orders” of Dominique Pelicot , a “demon”, and that that night in June 2018 he believed he was participating in the scenario of a libertine couple where the woman pretended to be sleeping.

Prosecuted for “aggravated rape”, this sixty-year-old living from light gardening work faces 20 years of criminal imprisonment, like most of the 50 other accused, 50 men aged 26 to 74.

Manhandled by several defense lawyers, some going so far as to accuse her of having consented, Ms.^me Pelicot refuted for almost two hours that she had been “under the influence” or “manipulated” during their 50 years of life together with her husband: “Absolutely nothing caught my ear! “.

“I will never forgive,” she assured in any case: “Mr. Pelicot had many fantasies, all of which I could not satisfy. […] As I didn’t want to go to a swingers club, he said he found the solution by putting me to sleep! I lost 10 years of my life that I will never get back. Never ! This scar will never close! », she blurted out, barely holding back her anger.

An anger that she also maintains against the co-defendants, who “at no time went to denounce” the facts: “They came to satisfy their sexual urges and, only afterwards, said to themselves that something was wrong in this room “.

“Some apologize to me, and I can look them in the eye more. But they all committed a crime,” she accused: “All my life I will have to live with this. That men have defiled me, I will have to live with that, all my life. All my life,” she concluded at the end of the morning, specifying that she was finally waiting for “explanations” from her ex-husband.

Dominique Pelicot, for his part, tried to justify this decade of rape with a “fantasy”, that of “subduing a rebellious woman, out of pure selfishness”. But “without making her suffer”, he dared, when questioned in the afternoon.

“You will die a lie!” »

Then he again categorically denied the slightest incestuous gesture against his daughter, Caroline Darian, of whom he had posted photos of her naked and visibly asleep on social networks, sometimes wearing her mother’s underwear. “Caroline, I never did anything to you,” he said, immediately cut off by his daughter.

“You will die a lie!” Alone, alone in the lie Dominique Pelicot! It’s a shame for you, you have no face! “, shouted back to him the one who only describes him as “progenitor”.

The defense lawyers also tried to obtain details on two other cases where the main accused is still implicated by the Nanterre cold case division: a murder with rape in Paris in 1991, which he denies, and an attempted rape in Seine-et-Marne in 1999, which he recognizes, after being confused by his DNA.

But he refused to comment on these matters.

On Wednesday, the trial will enter a new phase, that of the pleadings, with the civil parties, before a suspension until Monday, for the start of the public prosecutor’s indictment. The verdict is expected on December 20 at the latest.