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21 Sep 2024 13:11
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  •   Home > News > Law and Order

    The tiny town, the secret recordings and the dozens of 'degenerates' who ended up in the dock

    Mazan was once synonymous with the best of the south of France: vineyards on one side, lavender fields to the other. Now it's at the centre of a high-profile rape trial, and prosecutors say some of the men here have a dark secret.


    WARNING: This story contains details some readers will find distressing.

    Mazan was once synonymous with the best of the south of France: its ivy-clad heritage buildings bathed in sunshine, vineyards on one side, lavender fields to the other.

    Now, the village is at the centre of one of the most high-profile criminal trials in the country's history, and many would say the female survivor is emerging as a national hero.

    Mazan is where Dominique and Gisele Pelicot lived.

    Dominique, 71, is on trial for drugging and raping his wife, and inviting 50 other men he met online to sexually assault her while he filmed it.

    He has pleaded guilty to all the charges against him.

    The 50 other men are on trial too, however most have said they believed the intercourse was consensual.

    A rape trial in France — and many other countries — would usually be held in a closed court, but that's not the case this time.

    The reason for that is Gisele Pelicot.

    The 72-year-old mother and grandmother wanted these allegations spoken about — loudly and widely.

    Ms Pelicot waived her right to anonymity as an alleged victim of sexual assault, instead insisting that the shame must shift from victim to abuser.

    In doing so, she has become a symbol of courage and resilience in the fight against sexual violence, prompting thousands of people across France to hold rallies supporting her and messages of solidarity to flow in from around the world.

    Many local women have also been going to Avignon's Palais de Justice — about half an hour's drive from Mazan — to watch proceedings and applaud Ms Pelicot as she walks in and out of the courtroom.

    "We go to the trial every day and we listen to everything because we want to show Gisele that [she is] not alone," women's rights activist Blandine Deverlanges told the ABC.

    "By Gisele giving her name and saying she wants everything to be open, she allows all women or people who have been raped to not to be ashamed of that."

    'I am a rapist, like the others in this room'

    Dominique and Gisele Pelicot had been together for 50 years.

    She has said she loved and trusted her husband until 2020, when police came knocking.

    Dominique Pelicot had been caught trying to film up women's skirts in a supermarket and when detectives investigating that case seized his electronic devices, they discovered thousands of videos of his wife being sexually abused.

    The officers then spent the next two years tracking down and charging the men they allege are in them.

    On the first day of Dominique Pelicot's testimony this week, he admitted orchestrating the mass rape of his then-wife and asked her for forgiveness.

    He told the court: "I am a rapist, like the others in this room."

    "I ask my wife, my children, my grandchildren to accept my apologies. I regret what I did. I ask for your forgiveness, even if it is not forgivable."

    Of the 50 men on trial alongside him, more than a dozen have pleaded not guilty and are disputing the facts laid out by prosecutors.

    "These men are degenerates. They committed rape," Gisele Pelicot told the court.

    "When they saw a woman sleeping on her bed, no-one thought to ask themselves a question? They don't have brains?

    "In the state I was in, I absolutely could not respond. I was in a comatose state; the videos show that."

    The sheer number of men allegedly involved in this case has shocked many in France.

    As has this question: if so many knew this was happening, why didn't anyone contact police? Even anonymously.

    As well as the 51 accused, French police have revealed they are trying to track down dozens of other suspects from the footage.

    The case has caused tension in Mazan and the surrounding areas.

    "It's really hard to live here right now. Everybody knows at least one man involved," Ms Deverlanges said.

    Mazan's Mayor Louis Bonnet, however, played down those tensions in an interview with the BBC.

    "People here say 'no-one was killed'. It would have been much worse if [Pelicot] had killed his wife, but that didn't happen in this case," Mr Bonnet said.

    It is that kind of attitude that has increased some people's outrage.

    Case highlights uncomfortable issues in France

    Elsa Labouret from Osez le Féminisme, a charity that advocates for women's rights, said the Pelicot case had highlighted some uncomfortable truths.

    "Obviously this case is its own case, but it's also saying a lot about society and patriarchy and masculinity and social violence," Ms Labouret told the ABC.

    She said the ages of the alleged rapists, from 26 to 74, and the fact that they "come from all walks of life" needed to be spoken about, in order to widen public perceptions about who might commit sexual crimes.

    "There is no typical rapist, there is no typical scenario," Ms Labouret said.

    "The case also highlights that this started as domestic violence, intimate partner violence. The instigator of everything is the woman's husband, who's been with her for decades, and he was seemingly a perfect husband until everything came to light."

    During her testimony, Gisele Pelicot told the court, "for 50 years, I lived with a man who I would never have imagined was capable of these acts of rape".

    The trial, before five judges, is due to run until just before Christmas as the co-accused get the chance to put forward their defence, which has only just begun.

    If found guilty, each could face up to 20 years in jail.

    Both Ms Deverlanges and Ms Labouret said the majority of rape cases in France did not end with a conviction. Indeed, many never even make it to court.

    They are hoping this very public trial, and the bravery of Gisele Pelicot, will change that. 

    "The entire world is talking about this case and it's the main thing that everybody's talking about in France right now, she's already had an impact," Ms Labouret said.

    "And she knows that she has millions of people behind her."

    © 2024 ABC Australian Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved

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