The trial against A pensioner accused of drugging his wife for ten years so that she could be raped by strangers began his investigation in southern France on Monday, an emblematic process of chemical submission and with fifty defendants.
According to the criteria of
“Shame must change sides,” said Stéphane Babonneau, one of the lawyers of the victim, Gisèle P., rejecting that The hearings will be held behind closed doors, as requested in vain by the prosecution and part of the defense.
The 72-year-old victim, who is seeking a divorce from the main defendant, arrived at the court, surrounded by her lawyers and her three children, for the start of the trial in Avignon, which will continue until December 20.
In front of her, 51 men aged between 26 and 74, including her husband Dominique P., face up to 20 years in prison. Eighteen of them are in pre-trial detention.
“She is ashamed of what she did. It is unforgivable,” the husband’s lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, told reporters, adding that this case involved “a form of addiction.”
Gisele P., flanked by her lawyer Stephane Babonneau, arrives at the courthouse during the trial.
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What is known about the accused?
The accused are men from different horizons: firefighter, craftsman, nurse, prison officer, journalist, electrician…; single, married, divorced.
“There is no typical profile of a rapist. A rapist is just any guy,” Véronique Le Goaziou, a researcher at the Laboratoire Méditerranéen de Sociologie who specialises in sexual violence, told AFP before the trial.
There is no typical profile of a rapist. A rapist is just any guy.
Most of them only went to the main defendant’s home in the town of Mazan in southern France once. Ten of them went on several occasions, up to six nights in some cases. The man did not ask them for money in return.
The accused do not suffer from any serious psychological pathologies, although they have a feeling of “omnipotence” over the female body, according to experts. Many claim that they believed they were participating in the fantasies of a libertine couple.
But according to the husband, “everyone knew” that his wife was drugged without his consent. According to the investigation, “each individual had free will” and could have “left” upon realizing the situation.
This courtroom sketch taken on September 2, 2024 shows the plaintiffs and defense attorneys during trial.
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The facts “are part of a mental abnormality” of the husband, who He wanted to “drag the 50 accused into his madness,” said the lawyer of two of the latter, Roland Marmillot.
What the investigation found: 92 rapes
The researchers They identified 92 rapes since 2011, when the couple lived in the Paris region, but especially from 2013, after moving to Mazan, until 2020..
The former employee of the electricity company EDF was giving his wife a strong anti-anxiety medication and the men, contacted on the dating site coco.fr — now closed — were ordered not to wake her.
Other slogans were: Do not smell of perfume or tobacco, warm your hands with hot water and undress in the kitchen to avoid forgetting clothes in the bedroom.
Gisèle P. found out at the age of 68, when all the rapes came to light after her husband was caught in 2020 in a shopping centre filming under the skirts of customers.
Investigators then found on his computer many photos and videos of the victim, visibly unconscious, while dozens of strangers rape her.
For the woman, who says she has no recollection of what happened, the process will have “very difficult moments,” but “she believes she has nothing to hide” or “to be ashamed of,” said her lawyer.
The victim will testify on Thursday, while The magistrates will question the main accused on September 10.
Following his arrest, the cold case unit implicated the defendant in two others: a murder-cum-rape in Paris in 1991, which he denies, and an attempted rape in 1999, which he admits to after his DNA was identified.
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