Mazan trial: during the holidays on the Île de Ré or on Valentine's Day, the rapes of Gisèle Pelicot never stopped

Une banderole, face au palais de justice d'Avignon, ce 16 octobre 2024. MIDI LIBRE – François Barrère

De nouveaux accusés sont interrogés cette semaine par la cour criminelle du Vaucluse. La multitude des faits et la perversité de l'accusé principal, Dominique Pelicot, qui a fait violer son épouse droguée par des dizaines d'hommes pendant dix ans, continue à étourdir.

In the photo, they are cheek to cheek, radiant, smiling, with the big blue sky of the Ile de Ré in the background. May 2019, Gisèle and Dominique Pelicot are on vacation in their daughter's second home, and in the second image projected today at the Vaucluse criminal court, we also see their grandson, in the foreground.

“I thank you for this photo, because apparently, I'm not going to see my grandson again anytime soon” choked Dominique Pelicot, accused of raping and having his drugged and unconscious wife raped by dozens of men at their home in Mazan, near Carpentras.

The A and B sides of the main accused

“We see these images of happy moments, and you can't help but organize these rapes ?”asks Me Babonneau, one of Gisèle's lawyers.

“It's the famous B-side that I've since crossed out” he says, evoking the two facets of his personality.

“What do you feel when you think about what's going to happen ?”

“I feel guilt, shame and pleasure too. That's what's special. Everything is mixed up.

Images that are an attack on human dignity

The following images are of a completely different nature. Videos, filmed in the bedroom of this holiday home. Very bright, for once. But still just as much “an attack on human dignity”, as President Arata reminds us in advance, and also painful to watch. We see Dominique Pelicot abusing his sleeping wife, dressed in black stockings, then another man, at length, doing the same. We can clearly see that even unconscious, Gisèle at times instinctively rejects the bodies of these men who want to take possession of her, and that this does not stop them.

“For me, sex is giving pleasure, and taking pleasure. Sex without love is like a flower without scent" says Mohamed R., 70, who is appearing in custody, having already been convicted of raping one of his six daughters. "As long as there was no reaction from Madame, all I wanted to do was leave."

The longest video where we see him with Gisèle Pelicot still lasts more than 34 minutes. The President: “Why did you stay ?”

“A trap, an ambush"

The Accused: “Because he had a kind of hold over me. His scenario is a trap, once you're in it, that's it is! It's an ambush that has worked with a multitude of people who have been there, and who have been fooled. He has become a master in the art of manipulation."

Mohamed R. denies the penetrations, however, while his gestures on the videos leave little doubt, and Dominique Pelicot confirms it. Me Zavarro, Pélicot's lawyer, questions Mohamed R.

“Why should we believe you, more than him ?” The accused : “He is an extremely rare specimen of sexual perversity ! He's a master of sexual staging, he has a lot of cases on his back, I don't have as many."

Prosecuted for fifty crimes

"The reason to believe my client is that he is being prosecuted for one crime, while Pelicot is being prosecuted for fifty! " thunders Me Marmillot, his lawyer.

The court moves on to the next case. Dominique D., 45, former soldier, went to Mazan six times, between 2015 and 2020. The first time, for a strange party. “It was on coco, an ad for a man who was looking for a man to give to his wife for Valentine's Day. Then, he told me, there would have been alcohol and tranquilizers. I said: very good.”

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