Dizzying, dizzying and exhausting day, Thursday, October 3, at the Avignon court: no less than seven defendants were heard by the Vaucluse criminal court about the acts of rape with which they are accused. One or another interrogation could have been postponed for twenty-four hours, but it is necessary to issue a verdict before Christmas, so we condense, we interrogate at full speed, and it is a pity that the historical process sometimes has immediate appearances.
In the court’s defense, the blanket denial enterprise is a bit repetitive — the “rape-without-intention-to-eat” litany continued Thursday — and it’s tempting to dismiss the umpteenth defendant. “I didn’t know she was on drugs.” or thought “that it was a sexual game and that she was going to wake up”. But this trial tells so many stories within the story and is filled with so many details that it would take longer to hear it all.
Where to start? Because of Jean T.’s curious amnesia? Because of the lamentations of Redouane E.? At least these two provided the court with justifications that it had not yet heard. The first, 52 years old, remembers everything up to his entry into Gisèle Pelicot’s room; remembers everything after waking up in his car in the nearby parking lot; What happened between the two? “I don’t remember anything”he swore, trying to convince himself that he himself had been “drug” By Dominique Pelicot.
Redouane E. also ruled out, saying ” victim “ by Dominique Pelicot, against whom he would have had “the fear of [sa] life “. “When I got to the room I said to myself: did he kill his wife? Are you going to film? Are you going to implicate me in a murder? I was terrified! I found myself stuck, I told myself: at the slightest attempt to escape, I would die. so what i did [à Gisèle Pelicot]It was so as not to frustrate the man, who seemed to me to be a dangerous psychopath. »
“Hate towards women”
“This morning I watched the videos again, I didn’t see you terrified at all.”said Antoine Camus, Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer. “What needs to be understood, responded the 55-year-old defendant, anticipating the unfavorable videos that will be seen on Friday. This is because I am in the presence of a predator, so I must not show weakness so as not to prompt it to attack me. This makes the interpretation of the videos very complex. They tell me I don’t look scared, but I didn’t want to look scared! »
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