Beginning the end of a historical process, Dominique Pelicot, The man who drugged his wife Giséle (71 years old, both), for twenty years, to photograph and film how a hundred men raped her, between 2011 and 2020, at the family home, in Mazan (Vaucluse), concluded his statements Wednesday morning with this confession: «I am a rapist. I will die like a dog.
On Tuesday, Gisèle Pelicot made an implacable moral assessment of her martyrdom, drawing a conclusion of great social significance: “Society must change its gaze towards sexual violence and patriarchal machismo.”
On Wednesday, the husband used his last intervention, before the prosecutors’ intervention, next week, trying again “justify«, indirectly: »I’m sorry for what I did, a disaster. I would like to look my daughter in the eyes, argue with her, explain myself…«.
From the back of the courtroom in Avignon, where the historic trial continues for eleven weeks, the daughter began to scream: “You raped me, like you had my mother raped, and you published my naked photo, to offer it to other men.” , like you did with my mother. I will never go to see you in jail. You will die alone, like a dog.
Without flinching or moving from his chair, the father responded: «I will die like a dog. I won’t ask anyone to stand behind my coffin when I die, either. Because there will be a coffin, my daughter. There always is. “You are always alone.”
The daughter interrupted him shouting: “You you are particularly alone, like a rapist, a dog.”
The father continued “apologizing”: “I was caught in a gear. Some accused, rapists, too, came to threaten me. I wanted to finish. But he wasn’t capable. I was in a mess. It was perversity. “I have not hidden that I am a rapist who drugged his wife.”
With these atrocious interventions, the historic process entered its final phase.
Process
Except for unforeseen events, the presidency of the Avignon Tribune must postpone the continuation of the process until next Monday, when the prosecutors will present their conclusionsindividual and collective, against Dominique Pelicot, in particular, and others fifty rapistsmen from 26 to 74 years old. The trial will end without the police having managed to arrest another fifty rapists.
The husband and the arrested rapists are accused of the same crimes: sexual assault and aggravated rape. The Court will take into account the “track record” of the accused. Some only committed rape. Others committed repeated rapes, “orchestrated” by the husband who drugged his wife and offered her up in the family’s nuptial bedroom. Some defendants committed the rape again on a dozen occasions.
The husband must be judged as the rapist and “organizer” of these crimes. According to the French Penal Code, crimes of rape and sexual assault can be punished by up to twenty years in prison.
The prosecutors in the case have several days to study and prepare their conclusions and sentencing requests, starting next Monday. Nobody knows if these requests will begin with the main accused or with the rest of the rapists.
Following the requests of the prosecution, the defense will intervene. The case will be ready for sentencing at the end of this year, if no unforeseeable incidents occur.
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