“I was crazy about her,” assures Dominique Pelicot of his wife
Dominique Pelicot is questioned by an appraiser about his feelings for his wife. “I was crazy about her, she had become the one to replace everything,” he said through tears. He continues: “I loved her for 40 years and I loved her badly for 10. I ruined everything. I should never have done that.”
What to remember from Dominique Pelicot's first words this morning
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Mazan rape trial: “I'm a rapist”, “Gisèle doesn't deserve this”… Dominique Pelicot's first words
Videos are “perversion”, says Dominique Pelicot
Dominique Pelicot is questioned about the multiple videos of his wife being raped by dozens of strangers. He highlights “a part of pleasure”, but also “a measure of assurance, in the conditions where today we can find all those who participated in it, thanks to it”. The president of the criminal court reminds the accused of the “evocative titles” given to the footage. “It's a perversion, a vice, but it's also a significant element in being able to remember certain people.”
Dominique Pelicot says he tried to kill himself
In response to an evaluator's question, Dominique Pelicot stated that he tried to kill himself when he was detained at the Baumettes prison in Marseille. “They wanted to kill me, Mrs. Zavarro was the one who saved me. He told me: you will rather help them than make people understand what happened”.
Dominique Pelicot: “I regret what I did”
Dominique Pelicot takes the floor again to answer the questions of the Vaucluse criminal court. “I am guilty of what I have done. I ask my wife, my children, my grandchildren to accept my apology, please. I regret what I have done, I ask for forgiveness, even if it is unforgivable.”
Gisèle Pelicot returns to her seat, the hearing of Dominique Pelicot continues
Gisèle Pelicot: “He knew that he committed these acts of rape and barbarism against me”
Gisèle Pelicot: “It's hard to hear what Mr. Pelicot is saying”
Gisèle Pelicot speaks again before the Vaucluse criminal court and reacts to what her ex-husband just said. “For me, it's hard to hear what Mr. Pelicot just said. In 50 years, I lived with a man… I never imagined for a second that he could have committed these acts of rape.”
Dominique Pelicot: “I never considered my wife as an object”
Dominique Pelicot assures him: “Even if it is paradoxical, I never considered my wife as an object, unfortunately the videos show the opposite.”
Dominique Pelicot: “We are not born perverts, we become one”
Gisèle Pelicot, “a great meeting”, remembers Dominique Pelicot
Dominique Pelicot describes the moment he met the woman who would become his wife as a “beautiful meeting”. He says: “I was very happy with her. I had three children, grandchildren, whom I never touched.” To Gisèle Pelicot: “You were wonderful and I missed the point.”
Dominique Pelicot tearfully recounts two sexual violences she suffered as a child
Crying in his box, Dominique Pelicot recounts two sexual abuses suffered during his childhood. The first at the age of 9, from a nurse who imposed caresses on her, at the Châteauroux hospital. The second at the age of 14 when he was an apprentice on a construction site. He would have been forced to have sexual relations with a woman.
Gisèle Pelicot “doesn't deserve it”
Dominique Pelicot says his wife Gisèle Pelicot “didn't deserve this”. The victim put his sunglasses back on at the criminal court in Vaucluse.
“I'm a rapist”
Dominique Pelicot delivered his first words in the Mazan rape trial on Tuesday morning in Avignon. “I maintain that I am a rapist, like those in this room. They all knew his condition before they came, they knew everything, I can't say otherwise.” Dominique Pelicot assured that he “recognizes the facts in their entirety”.
Gisèle Pelicot arrives in court
She arrived surrounded by her lawyers. Her three children are currently missing.
the arrival of Gisèle #Pellicotsurrounded by her lawyers: Stéphane Babonneau and Antoine Camus. pic.twitter.com/vQJw51fUPs
— Juliette Campion (@JulietteCampion) September 17, 2024
What doctors recommend for Dominique Pelicot's hearing
A medical expert concluded that Dominique Pelicot was fit to stand trial. The scenario of a delay of a few weeks or even a few months of the trial, which the victims feared – is receding. “I received a message from the president claiming that Dominique Pelicot will be present at tomorrow's hearing with special adaptation conditions, namely: the sequence of hearings and regular rest time,” explained Béatrice Zavarro, Dominique Pelicot's lawyer. The criminal court will have to take a 15 to 20 minute recess every 90 minutes of sitting.
Other rape defendants questioned this week
The Vaucluse criminal court could also re-interrogate Dominique Pelicot's ex-wife, Gisèle Pelicot, as well as her brother Joël. In the coming days, the court should continue the examination, already started, of four of them: Jean-Pierre M., 63, Jacques C., 72, Lionel R., 44, and Cyrille D., 54 years old.
Dominique Pelicot will finally speak
The septuagenarian, accused of drugging his wife with anxiolytics and then raping her and having her raped by dozens of men recruited on the Internet, may testify for the first time on Tuesday. Although he has already admitted the facts, Dominique Pelicot has never explained himself in detail since the start of the trial on September 2.
Dominique Pelicot present at today's meeting
After a few days of absence for health reasons, Dominique Pelicot is present at the criminal court of Vaucluse, this Tuesday, September 17. Aided by a cane and dressed in a gray jacket, he slowly entered the defendant's box before settling into a blue armchair that was supposed to be more comfortable than a chair and left to watch the next hearings.
Welcome to our live
Watch the hearing day of the Mazan rape trial, marked by Dominique Pelicot's return to the Vaucluse criminal court, live on Tuesday 17 September 2024.