Mazan: Dominique Pelicot, the “monster” at the heart of the trial

The defense arguments at the Mazan rape trial in Avignon concluded on Friday by pointing out for the umpteenth time the “monster” Dominique Pelicot who allegedly manipulated the accused, “indirect victims”.

This extraordinary trial with powerful national and international impact is entering the home stretch, after a little more than two weeks devoted to the defense of the 51 men accused, most of them of aggravated rape of Gisèle Pelicot, 72, including her ex-husband. Dominique, who admitted to having drugged her to rape her and deliver her to strangers recruited on the internet at the family home in Mazan.

One of the last lawyers to speak, Me Nadia El Bouroumi, spoke for a little over an hour about her clients (Omar D., 36 years old, maintenance worker and Jean-Marc L., retired from 74 years old, the oldest accused), “men, father, grandfather who have a simple, quiet life”, and their life paths “without fault” until their meeting with Dominique Pelicot.

Like several of her colleagues, she opted for a line of defense consisting of clearing the accused, now aged 27 to 74 and from all social backgrounds, who according to her had “no conscience » that they sexually assaulted Gisèle Pelicot, to better charge “the monster” Dominique Pelicot, “fine manipulator” who “knowingly chose them to be able to satisfy his fantasies”.

“I defend men who are the normality of this society and Mr. Pelicot is the exception, he is someone dangerous. We have a monster in the box,” declared the lawyer. Other defenders have portrayed Dominique Pelicot in recent weeks as “a wolf” or “an ogre”.

Recalling that Gisèle Pelicot was indeed a victim “and that there is no question of calling into question her non-consent”, she defended that her ex-husband “used these men as objects”, “indirect victims” .

“How could we have understood that Ms. Pelicot was drugged? The power of the serial rapist, who kills, who rapes her, and is capable of making her say that “he was a nice guy” (sentence pronounced by Gisèle Pelicot during her hearing by the police in 2020)? I believe you Ms. Pelicot, because the power of this guy has succeeded in manipulating you for all these years!” asserted the lawyer.

“The serial rapist has a psychology, a functioning where he manipulates” for “more than 30 years,” she accused. A reference to 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, whom he recognized, after being confused by his DNA.

However, “there is no crime without intention: what is intention? It is the will and the conscience to commit a crime,” said Mr. El Bouroumi, asking the court “to acquit these men.”

She also spoke of the difficulties of the defense. “It’s very hard for us to speak, because we have a civil party who is an icon and any words are an attack on women,” explained the lawyer.

Noting that the court was under “public pressure” but also “media pressure” (166 media outlets are accredited, including 76 foreign ones), she asked it to “keep a cool head” during its verdict to “get back to basics”.

On Monday, Dominique Pelicot and his co-defendants, men will have the opportunity to speak one last time before the judges of the Vaucluse criminal court retire to decide whether or not they are guilty and the penalties to be imposed.

The verdict is expected next Thursday. The prosecution, which requested sentences of four to twenty years of criminal imprisonment, asked the court to send through its decision “a message of hope to victims of sexual violence”. “You will mean that ordinary rape does not exist, that accidental or involuntary rape does not exist,” declared Laure Chabaud, one of the two representatives of the public prosecutor.