Fabien S: "I was manipulated." Joan K: "Yes, there was manipulation." Jacques C: "I've been fooled, that's for sure." Hugues M: "I trusted too much." "We fell into a trap," said Husamettin D. angrily, asserting without hesitation on the stand on Wednesday, September 25: "Yes, I'm a victim." These were Dominique Pelicot's co-defendants, speaking before the Vaucluse criminal court in Avignon, southern France.
Since September 19, nine of the 49 men on trial for rape, attempted rape or sexual assault on Gisèle Pelicot – the 50th is still at large – have been heard. They did their utmost to convince the judges that things were more complex than they appeared at first sight, and that their presence at the trial was due to an unfortunate chain of events that had overtaken them.
The Pelicot trial has rekindled the debate on introducing the notion of consent into the legal definition of rape. But according to the first set of defendants' testimonies, it would be better to introduce an "involuntary rape" offense into the Penal Code, as this is essentially what they have been arguing in recent days, maintaining the confusion between the intention, premeditation and awareness of committing rape.
With the images that Dominique Pelicot recorded and archived of the abuse inflicted on his former wife, whom he had previously drugged, it's impossible to deny the reality of the facts: acts of penetration of an unconscious woman. However, the co-defendants all deny the slightest guilty intent. "I recognize the rape but not the intention," said several of the defendants. This is "an acknowledgement of the facts that isn't one," said Stéphane Babonneau, one of Gisèle Pelicot's lawyers.
"I never intended to do so, but never having had Madame Pelicot's consent, I can only note the facts," said Lionel R.
- "Do you think it's possible to commit rape without meaning to?" asked Babonneau.
- "Yes. That day, as I got into my car, I never said to myself 'I'm going to rape that lady.'"
- "But on the spot, you didn't ensure her consent, you had an erection. Was it an involuntary rape?"
- "It was my fault."
- "Was it voluntary or involuntary rape?"
- "It wasn't voluntary."
Rape without intent. The line of defense is simple: they all claim to have been unaware, before setting foot in the town of Mazan, where Gisèle Pelicot was drugged and raped without her knowledge. It was taken for granted, they said, that she consented to take part in what was in their eyes a "sexual game," a "couple's kink." "Paul-Roger Gontard, the defense lawyer, emphasized: "The ad was not: 'Perverse husband seeks partner to carry out gang rape on benzodiazepines'."
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