“I feel like I'm the guilty one,” protests Gisèle Pélicot. | EUROtoday

HASAfter an hour of torture, Gisèle Pélicot exploded. “I understand that rape victims don't file a complaint! We go through a process of unpacking where we try to humiliate the victim! And those behind it (Editor's note: the accused sitting behind her), they are not guilty!” For three weeks, Gisèle Pélicot held her head excessive on the civil occasion bench, within the trial that pitted her towards 51 males accused of raping her after her husband drugged her in Mazan (Vaucluse) for ten years. She confirmed the face of a dignified, calm girl, conscious of the social points raised by her trial. Under this face boiled an anger that she couldn’t include, this Wednesday, September 18, on the finish of a lunar listening to the place the sufferer appeared to placed on the garments of the accused.

The protection legal professionals, who could concern that the printed of the rape movies could be devastating for his or her shoppers, have in actual fact requested to view different pictures discovered on Dominique Pélicot's onerous drive. Those of his ex-wife Gisèle, bare or undressed in varied lascivious, obscene and even pornographic positions. Her non-public components are broadcast in close-up on the screens within the courtroom, the place solely the legal professionals, the accused and the journalists are current. The presiding decide took care to have the adjoining room evacuated in order that the general public wouldn’t see them.

Intimate pictures displayed

“I requested the publication of these photos to understand Ms. Pélicot's position in relation to the alleged facts and the way this couple operated, and in no case to situate myself on the level of morality,” explains Me Isabelle Crépin-Dehaene, on the origin of the initiative. Less avowable purpose: to disclose an unflattering aspect of Gisèle Pélicot, to instill the concept the accused may have believed that she was consenting to the truth that 70 individuals have been raping her, no matter whether or not she was in a state near a coma. In precept, we’re not removed from the argument of the younger lady raped as a result of she was sporting a miniskirt…

This 71-year-old retiree thus needed to justify any sexual practices she was suspected of, by avoiding glancing on the close-up pictures of her bare self proven above her. Two sequence of 27 very crude pictures have been displayed. The room remained silent. Some seemed away. Me Crépin-Dehaene concluded: “Ms. Pélicot is awake, sometimes she smiles. Not all women accept this type of explicit photos. I deduce that there was a sexual game in the couple that is specific to them.”

“I think they're trying to set me up”

“There are hands that are not mine, these photos were taken without my knowledge,” says Gisèle Pélicot in shock. “I think they are trying to trap me through these photos. They want to show that I lured these individuals, that I was consenting. That will not destabilize me in any way.”

The protection insists, bombards Gisèle Pélicot with questions – which is her absolute proper. The ambiance turns into tense because the sufferer insists that she by no means knew about it. “I baited, I pretended, I was an accomplice, I drank… What are they looking for in this room, to make me guilty?” she will get irritated.

And Gisèle Pélicot's troubles will not be over. “You wouldn't have exhibitionist tendencies?” Me Philippe Kaboré, the protection legal professional, asks him abruptly. “Unbelievable!” Me Babonneau, Gisèle Pélicot's legal professional, protests, trying him over with a horrified expression. “It's degrading, it's humiliating,” she raises her voice once more, repeating that she doesn't perceive the origin of those pictures. “I explained that I was absent for ten years, I didn't remember anything (Editor's note: because of the high doses of sleeping pills that her husband gave her to rape her)! Do you want to see the scans?”

The listening to turns into electrical. Still on the grill, Gisèle Pélicot turns round and is subjected to the blows of Me Nadia El Bouroumi, protection legal professional. “You are responsible for this dissemination, Ms. Pélicot!”, the black costume storms so loudly that one hesitates to cowl one's ears. Gisèle Pélicot has certainly given her consent for the dissemination of those pictures in court docket, however to not the general public, as a result of she didn’t wish to “give them up to the public.”

This is adopted by insults between Gisèle Pélicot's legal professionals and Mr. El Bouroumi, beneath the emotionless gaze of the president of the court docket, Roger Arata, who had nonetheless promised, originally of the trial, to ensure the serenity of the debates… In the center, Gisèle Pélicot, outraged then incredulous. The protection will even reproach, by a query, the sufferer for having introduced laundry to her husband in detention. “This is absolutely not your trial,” Mr. Guillaume de Palma tries to reassure as he approaches her. “A little bit anyway,” sighs Gisèle Pélicot, nodding her head.

Questioned following this distressing sequence, Dominique Pélicot defends his spouse in each approach. “In these photos, there are two consensual ones in lingerie,” he explains calmly. “The rest are intimate photos, without Madame's knowledge. We must stop suspecting her, I did a lot of things without her knowing.”

Earlier within the afternoon, Gisèle Pélicot had given her emotions in regards to the listening to over the previous three weeks. “Since I arrived in this room, I feel humiliated, I’ve been called an alcoholic, an accomplice… We debated the time stamping of rapes! Is rape a question of time? Three minutes, an hour? If the people who say that saw their sister or daughter being a victim, would they have the same debate? Minute or second, it doesn’t matter, they came to rape me! It’s so degrading, trying.” […] It takes a excessive diploma of persistence to endure all the pieces I hear.”

“They ought to sit in my place!”

Even before the photos were released, this frail woman seemed to lose her temper, outraged by some of the defense's arguments: “I’ve the impression that I’m the responsible occasion, and behind (Editor's be aware: the place the accused are sitting), there are victims! Besides, they need to sit in my place!” “Some say that you possibly can have agreed (Editor's be aware: to have sexual relations with the accused) and would have delegated the settlement to your husband?”, her lawyer Stéphane Babonneau asks her. “At what level does a person determine for his spouse?” Gisèle Pélicot gets annoyed. “I used to be beneath chemical affect. When they see a girl asleep on her mattress, they marvel? What have they got as an alternative of brains?” Noises rise from the defense benches. “There are 50 of them who didn't ask themselves the query. They are degenerates!” “I'm not used to getting offended, however sufficient is sufficient!” she bursts out.

“Were you capable of oppose these males?” Me Babonneau deliberately asks her. “In the state I used to be in, I couldn't reply anybody, I used to be in a coma and the movies that might be broadcast can attest to that. As a girl, the humiliation is whole. Not for a second did I give my consent to those males.” It was troublesome to be heard this Wednesday.