Mazan rape trial: hearings resume this Tuesday in the presence of Dominique Pelicot, absent the day before for health reasons

The Mazan rape trial, which began on September 2, 2024, is scheduled to last until December 20. EPA – GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO

Dominique Pelicot, the main accused in the Mazan rape trial, returned this Tuesday, October 1, 2024, to the dock of the Vaucluse criminal court, which will study the psychological profiles of a third group of his co-accused, numbering seven this week.

The presiding judge, Roger Arata, opened this twentieth day of hearings in this emblematic trial of chemical submission and sexual violence without providing any details on the state of health of Mr. Pelicot, 71, who had been excused for Monday for medical reasons.

He is suffering from some "pain caused by the removal of the catheter" and then its replacement, said his lawyer, Me Béatrice Zavarro, specifying that a new medical appointment was planned "soon".

Trial already suspended in September

The trial, which began on 2 September and 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 suffering from intestinal problems.

For ten years, from July 2011 to October 2020, the septuagenarian drugged his wife with anxiolytics and then raped her and had her raped by dozens of men he invited on the internet.

Alongside him, 50 men, aged 26 to 74, are being tried in Avignon, most of them prosecuted for aggravated rape, for which they face 20 years of criminal imprisonment.

Eighteen of these accused, including Dominique Pelicot, appear in custody. Thirty-two others appear free, the last one, on the run, being tried in absentia.

Hearings of the psychological experts

After hearing the personality investigators on Monday, the court continued its study of the third group of seven accused on Tuesday with hearings of the psychological experts. Then it will be the turn of the psychiatric experts on Wednesday.

Among these seven men who should be questioned in court on Thursday is the case of Jérôme V., 46, a former employee in a grocery store, who came six times in 2020 to sexually assault Gisèle Pelicot at the couple's marital home in Mazan (Vaucluse), in the south-east of France.

Who are the other six accused ?

The other six accused are Simone M., 43, a construction worker after 12 years with the Alpine hunters, Adrien L., 34, already sentenced to 14 years in prison for three previous rapes on his concubines, Thierry P., a 61-year-old refrigeration engineer, also indicted for possession of child pornography, Jean T., 52, a former roofer, Redouane E., 55, a private nurse, 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.