In his last statement in this process before the Avignon Criminal CourtPelicot asked those sitting on the bench as a way of reproach at what point they had asked her permission when they raped her.
“I feel anger towards these men because at no time did they stop, at no time did they report. They came to satisfy their sexual urges. They could stop at any time and not a single one reported. “That draws attention,” he denounced, turning towards them and pointing his finger at them.
“I have lost ten years of my life that I will never get back”
“The scar will never close,” said Pelicot, who estimated that during the almost ten years of organized abuse by her husband, Dominique, she suffered 200 rapes.
“I’ve lost ten years of my life that I’ll never get back.“said the victim, who recalled that he is now 72.
He reported that since the judicial procedure began he has heard “unacceptable things“, and that when he became aware of the situation he renounced the trial being held behind closed doors, as was his right, although “he knew what he was exposing himself to.”
Gisèle Pelicot has repeatedly indicated that she decided that the hearings were public so that “shame will change sides“and today he insisted that he hopes that”sexist society, open your eyes and change your outlook on rape“.
Regarding her husband’s behavior, she considered that he had great sexual frustration, but since he knew that she was not going to agree to participate in swingers clubs, he chose to drug her “to do with me what he wanted.”
The events being judged occurred in the house to which the Pelicots They had moved when they retired to the town of Mazan, near Avignon.
Her husband came into contact with other men in a online platform dedicated to the sexual encounters and invited them to his home once he had administered large doses of anxiolytics to his wife that left her in a state of unconsciousness, allowing them to abuse her without her retaining any memory.
Dominique Pelicot recorded and took photographs of those violations, documents that have become the main elements of evidence of the accusation.
The president of the court decided to take a brief break this morning after what was one of the hardest interventions in the hearing from an emotional point of view for Gisèle Pelicot, in particular due to the questions posed to her by defense lawyers.
Especially those of Nadia El Bouroumiwho is the lawyer for two of the defendants, and who reproached the victim for being relatively lenient with her ex-husband and not with others she sit on the bench.
The trial is in its final stretch
After the last statement today of Gisèle and Dominique Pelicot The arguments of the lawyers for the private prosecution are scheduled to begin tomorrow, Wednesday, and next week it will be the Prosecutor’s Office that will request the sentences for the accused before the intervention of their lawyers.
Béatrice Zavarro, the Dominique Pelicot’s lawyeranticipated that in his client’s latest intervention he can be expected to address “the reasons why he took action“of those that have already been shelled”some little clues“in the two and a half months that have passed since the trial began.
“You cannot leave this hearing with the frustration of not knowing the reasons why Dominique Pelicot acted like this,” stressed Zavarro, who on Monday had expressed his hope that he would clarify why he also had in his files photos of his daughters-in-law and his daughter Caroline, who suspects that her father could drug to abuse her, like he did with his mother.
