Meet "group 5." Two retired truckers, an ex-machinist, a joinery fitter and an IT technician, aged between 40 and 74. From Monday, October 7, to Friday, October 11, each appeared in turn before the criminal court in Avignon, southern France, on charges of aggravated rape. Twenty-five, including Dominique Pelicot, the man who repeatedly drugged his wife Gisèle Pelicot and invited dozens of men to rape her while she was unconscious, had already been questioned, and 20 more will be questioned in the coming weeks, while a 21st is still at large.
Of the members of "group 5," only one is in detention during the trial: Vincent C., who went to the Pelicots' house in Mazan twice, and has previously been convicted of domestic violence. The others had been placed under judicial supervision, after several months of pre-trial detention. When asked by the court's presiding judge, Roger Arata, at the start of their questioning, "Do you admit to the charges against you?" four of them answered "no." Over these five days, Dominique Pelicot, sitting in the dock reserved for him, observed them. He sat like a sovereign in his chair, while they were in the hot seat.
Let's begin with the exception: Patrick A., 60, with an overweight body spilling out of a large orange T-shirt, half a school-leaving diploma in electromechanics – "I passed the practice, I failed the theory" – and a life spent concealing that he is gay. "Around 13-14, I realized that I liked boys more than girls. My parents didn't like homosexuals very much..." To "be like everyone else," at 25 he married a woman who was 11 years his senior, already the mother of two children, and whom his parents didn't like. "My father didn't come to the wedding, my mother cried."
Two more children were born – "despite everything, I managed to love my wife" – the couple held on for 10 years before divorcing, and then Patrick A. resumed his "encounters with men, every week, sometimes several times a week, with truckers, on highway rest stops." Meanwhile, he developed psoriatic arthritis in his joints, for which he took a treatment that made him impotent, had a heart attack, and began to suffer from diabetes. On the night of March 21, 2018, after chatting with Dominique Pelicot on the Coco.fr website, he went to Mazan.
The judge read a description of the videos shot by Dominique Pelicot. It was long, very long, and very detailed. In summary, Patrick A. tried to penetrate Gisèle Pelicot, who was asleep after being knocked out by sleeping pills, but was unable to do so. Dominique Pelicot became impatient – "don't you like women? – and ordered him to "suck." Patrick A. complied, first on her, and then on him, before submitting to sexual intercourse with the husband. A month later, Patrick A. fell into depression.
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