A profound silence fell over the courtroom in Avignon as three large television screens, mounted high on three walls, came to life. You could feel that people were getting ready.
In a grim trial on drug and rape charges, it’s time to show you more of Dominic Pelico’s carefully selected home videos. These videos filmed by Pelikos and saved on a hard drive he described as “abused” document the abuse that his ex-wife Giselle suffered for a decade.
Fifty men are accused of raping her after she was drugged and left unconscious in the couple’s bed by her husband.
Today, at the age of 72, Giselle Pelicot has renounced her anonymity so that all the details of what she suffered can be revealed to the French public. His lawyers fought to have videos of the crimes shown in court. Although the judge previously said that people “of sensitive temperament” could leave, a member of Gisèle Pelicot’s legal team said that many decided to “face rape head on.”
Many of the men her ex-husband recruited online insist they didn’t believe what they were doing was rape. Dominic Pelico sat behind a glass panel, relaxed in his chair. His gray hair neatly arranged, his left hand raised to block the view of the screen.
Giselle Pelico sat on the opposite side of the room, her head resting against the wall and her eyes occasionally closed. On his face, a blank, unreadable expression.
On the screen, almost silently, a short, pale man wearing only blue underwear and black socks could be seen approaching a bed. The camera panned as he followed. Behind the man, a woman was lying on her left side, almost naked, on a crumpled white sheet. And then, without editing, without any blurring, the sexual acts began. At intervals later in the video, the woman could clearly be heard snoring. In court, Dominic Pelico he seemed to put both hands over his ears. For years he put an anxiolytic in his wife’s food and drink, which made her lose consciousness and seriously affected her health.
They knew she was unconscious
This and other videos, shown in court at Giselle Pelico’s insistence to a packed audience, are at the heart of the prosecution’s case.
Prosecutors allege that all 50 men who accepted Pelicot’s online invitations to visit the family home in the village of Mazan, near Avignon, they must have known his wife was unconscious.
Therefore, they should have realized that she was not consenting as a partner in some kind of sexual game where she was just pretending to be asleep. Therefore, they must have intended to rape her.
But several defense lawyers and their clients have now sought to dispute that fact.
The man seen on the screen in that video was a 43-year-old carpenter, identified in court as Vincent C. He now stood before jurors in a separate glass-walled area at the back of the courtroom, with his head bowed, looking into the distance. of the screen. “Do you recognize the facts of aggravated rape of which you are accused?” asked Chief Justice Roger Arata – a pleasant figure with a big white mustache.
“No,” replied Vincent C.
His explanation, given hesitantly, amounted to a vague admission that, since Dominique Pelicot had told him that his wife was a consensual partner in a sexual game, he had given the matter no further thought.
“I can’t stand this man”
At this point Gisèle Pelicot left the court for a few minutes, saying “I can’t stand this man”.
Vincent C acknowledged that the experience was “strange” and unlike anything he had encountered with other couples. And yet, he continued, “I didn’t say to myself: This isn’t good… I don’t think (much more) about those moments.”
However, after speaking to his mother and lawyers and watching the trial unfold, Vincent C said he was able to understand more about French law, the meaning of the rape and the seriousness of his actions.
“Now that I’ve been told how things happened, yes, the acts I committed would amount to rape.”
“Are you aware that Gisèle Pelicot was a victim of your actions?” asked the judge.
“Yes.”
Pelicot himself admitted all the charges against him.
Outside the courtroom, a lawyer representing another defendant distinguished Pelicot from the others.
“Today it is clear that Dominique Pelicot’s position is to try to mitigate his responsibility by removing 50 more men. (Giselle) is the victim. The question is whether the others were complicit or tricked into participating,” said Paul-Roger Gontard.
“Everyone says he is very manipulative”
Although some of the accused admitted to the rape, others claimed to have spoken or socialized with Giselle Pelico in the bedroom.
“So there are gray areas in this trial,” Gontard continued, pointing to the fact that the videos themselves had already been edited by Pelicot himself, meaning that evidence that could potentially be useful to the defense could have been cut.
“He chose what he wanted to keep. Choose the photos. But don’t be fooled. Everyone says he is very manipulative. Many (of the accused) thought it was a libertarian scheme with the couple, only to discover that it was actually a dark and criminal scheme hatched by the husband. The question today is when did they realize something was wrong? This finding varies between (the defendants). The question is often asked – why didn’t they leave? It is not so simple to leave at that moment when you are faced with a clearly dominant personality in a situation where you are naked and recorded by a camera”, added the lawyer.
The trial in Avignon will continue for many more weekswhile the verdict is expected to be delivered just before Christmas.
So far, only half of the defendants have been called to testify, but this case has already revealed, in the darkest details, the horrors to which Giselle Pelico was subjected and her extraordinary courage in denying her right to privacy.