After hearing the main defendant, Dominique Pélicot, and hearing the testimony of the victim, his now ex-wife, Giséle, the Avignon criminal court began to hear the rest of the defendants in the trial for multiple rapes against the woman then that she was, allegedly, under the effect of a narcotic taken in France. Of the 50 people involved who are sitting in the dock, 35 plead innocent to the charges against them, 14 accept them and one is missing.
It seems that a common line of defense has emerged: placing all the responsibility on Dominique Pélicot. They are, they claim, victims of the accused. Their testimony indicates that he made them believe that they were participating in a couple’s sexual game. That all of this was a manipulation allegedly concocted from the first contacts on the website where they met Pélicot – now closed.
If the images that Pélicot kept on his hard drive, in which he documented the abuse inflicted on his then wife, make it impossible for the accused to deny the facts, those who defend his innocence hope to convince the magistrates with explanations centered on the lack of premeditation and will. These days, expressions such as “he was manipulated”, “they deceived me”, “I was too trusting” and – in the case of the accused Husamettin D – have been heard: “I am a victim”.
All claim to be unaware that the wife had been drugged before entering the family home. “For me, she was pretending to sleep,” explained Husamettin D. However, the only video made public seems to deny any confusion about the state of Gisèle Pelicot, the victim seems more in a coma than asleep. “Unconsciousness seems more obvious in the images than in reality,” the accused himself tried to explain to the magistrates.
In the coming weeks, the court will again debate whether new videos will be released and, if so, whether this will be done in the presence of the press, as requested by the defense.
The question of consent
Several of the accused speak of “involuntary rapes” or “unconscious rapes”. In the context of a legal process which has reactivated the debate on the need to include the notion of consent in the legal definition of rape, one of the accused declared that “at that time I did not know what was consent.” Another noted that “he knew she was unconscious but not that she hadn’t consented.”
On the other hand, the dozen accused who have already testified in recent days have also mentioned their personal problems, such as the extenuating circumstances which would have pushed them to go to Mazan. Divorces, loss of a child, alcohol, drugs, infidelity, uncontrolled sexuality…
Several of the partners of three of the defendants also testified about him, who they described as a “good person”, “very empathetic” and “kind”, respectively. Everyone points to Dominique Pelicot – absent that day for medical reasons – as the main person responsible for the events.
“I would have liked him to be here and hear that he not only destroyed his family but many other lives,” said Samira, the partner of Jérôme V., who visited six times at the Pelicot home. “We had normal sexuality, for me there was no reason to look for anything outside,” he repeated several times during his statement.
Alexandra, Simone M.’s fiancée, said that her companion had admitted to having gone once, “just to see” and to having left almost immediately. A statement which surprised the magistrates and the prosecutor’s lawyers, who tried to explain that the videos prove the opposite, version that Alexandra did not want to accept. “I repeat that Simone told me the truth.”
Several jurists and judicial journalists observe these days that in the majority of rape trials, the versions of the victim and the accused or accused are opposed at the hearing. But in the case judged in Avignon, the words of the rest of the accused are compared to those of the main accused. Since his first statement, Dominique Pelicot, He became the main accuser of the men to whom he opened the door of his house to abuse his wife. “I’m a rapist, like everyone else in this room,” he said last week. “Everyone knew it, you can’t say otherwise.” A version that is repeated after the testimony of each accused, contradicting the line of defense.
Controversies with lawyers
Some defendants have apologized to Gisèle Pelicot, present every day in court, where she arrives to the applause and ovations of the people who come, also daily, to attend the trial in the annex room set up at the Avignon Courthouse. Those in charge of the establishment have difficulty adapting to a process that goes beyond the judicial sphere. In the first days, there were verbal clashes between some defendants and feminist activists, during which, in some cases, the police had to intervene.
The publicity surrounding the case has also placed some defense attorneys at the center of much criticism. Among them Guillaume De Palma, who tried to explain to a police officer that not all rapes are equally serious. “There is rape and rape”he downplayed during questioning, amid protests from prosecutors and the defense.
On the other hand, her colleague Nadia El Bouroumi has also become the target of feminist organizations, due to her aggressiveness during the interrogation of Gisèle Pelicot and the videos she broadcasts on social networks, in which she comments on the case and in which she questioned the victim’s version. He has since recorded other videos responding to criticism, including a particularly controversial one, with background music from Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go by Wham.
