“It’s terrible what happened to this woman.”
It may be the annual Christmas market in Mazan’s central square where life seems to carry on as normal, but a dark cloud looms over this small French town.
In Mazan, Dominique Pelicot said in court that he invited dozens of men he had recruited online to his home to rape his wife Gisèle Pelicot after drugging her. A total of 51 people are charged.
The trial in nearby Avignon was adjourned on Monday ahead of verdicts later this week. Since the hearings began in early September, they have captivated the nation and even the world.
That’s partly because of the sordid details, but mostly because Gisèle Pelicot, 71, waived her right to anonymity and gave a victim a name and a face – such a rare decision.
“We are waiting impatiently for the penalties,” said 52-year-old Yannick Richard at his kiosk. The pensioner sells knitted cuddly toys and sweaters at the market.
“We really need to honor the occasion. We can’t let it go by with little sentences.”
Gisèle Pelicot became an icon for those fighting against sexual violence because she testified between 2011 and 2020 about the harrowing events in which she was rendered unconscious by her now ex-husband, who invited strangers to his home to care for her to rape.
“When she made the decision to open the trial to the public, she did so because she felt the public needed to understand what had happened to her. “She never did it because she wanted attention,” Pelicot’s lawyer Stéphane Babonneau said after the trial was adjourned.
However, few in Mazan want to talk about the case. Most citizens of the town of about 6,000 are fed up and angry that their home has become synonymous with rape.
Those who talk try to stay away from the details and instead emphasize the beauty of their village.
“I find it appalling”
“As a Mazanaise, I don’t have too great an opinion on the case. It’s very tragic what happened to this lady. As a woman, I find it appalling,” said 58-year-old singer Poline de Peretti, who has lived in the village for 18 years.
“The Rapist of Mazan? No no no. It is the story of Madame Pelicot and the Pelicot family. I would really like to invite you to visit our village. The people are charming.”
Still, de Peretti can’t help but offer an opinion.
“It is Madame Pelicot, but it could be anyone else. You or me. We don’t know.”
House of Horrors
The first thing you notice about the house at the center of France’s worst-ever rape case are the blue shutters. Blue shutters on a cream colored bungalow with a terracotta roof.
An ordinary home with anything but ordinary going on inside.
There, just a 10-minute walk from the main square, Dominique Pelicot said he would invite the men to come and rape his wife while he filmed it.
He pleaded guilty and said in his statement that he would advise the men to park in a nearby sports field parking lot to avoid arousing suspicion.
They then walked around 100 meters through a dead end street to the house under the cover of darkness.
“The reputation of the village, a wonderful little village like this – is being destroyed by this type of person, this type of attitude,” said Christian Lhermitte, who has lived in Mazan for just five months.
“I think justice will be served.”
His wife Hugues Lhermitte interrupts him.
“I don’t think the penalties will be harsh enough, that’s for sure.”
One by one, all but one of the defendants came to the microphone to speak on Monday. Dominique Pelicot, 72, was first. His voice was weak and halting.
“I praise my ex-wife’s courage”
In his final statement to the court, he said he wanted to “first praise the courage of my ex-wife” and asked his family for forgiveness.
Most of the other men simply said, “I have nothing to add.”
Some maintained their innocence – which was audibly jeered by the public watching from the spillover room where the courtroom was televised.
As Gisèle Pelicot left the courtroom with Babonneau, she received applause and stopped to speak to some women who had supported her.
Babonneau said every society struggles with issues surrounding rape, adding that his client “really wanted everyone to understand that there is not just one rape, one type of rape, one type of rapist.”
“Everyone loved Dominique Pelicot for years. He was a beloved father, beloved husband, grandfather, colleague and is probably still one of the worst sex criminals of the last 50 years in France,” he said.
Babonneau said the trial underscored the universal message that consent is required before a sexual act – and that French criminal law defines rape as an act of sexual penetration of a person using force, coercion, threat or what we call surprise. define.
He said that although the word “consent” does not appear in the law, Gisèle Pelicot was unconscious when she was sexually assaulted, “so the rape was committed unexpectedly.”
Last month, prosecutors asked the panel of judges to impose a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for aggravated rape against Dominique Pelicot and sentences of 10 to 18 years for the other defendants, who face the same charges if found guilty.
The presiding judge told the court on Monday that the verdicts would be announced on Thursday but could be postponed until Friday morning.
