Defence lawyers for some of the men accused of raping Gisele Pelicot at her home in Mazan, a small town in France's Vaucluse Department, alleged on Thursday that their clients had not known that they were sexually assaulting her because they were "manipulated" by her husband.
The three lawyers are defending eight of the 51 accused, most of whom are on trial for the aggravated rape of Pelicot, who had been sedated by her then husband in their marital home in Mazan, and repeatedly abused by men contacted by him.
The defence attorneys ended their closing arguments by calling for their clients to be acquitted.
Defence lawyer says his clients 'did not know'
The prosecution had asked, in early December, for 12 to 14 years‘ imprisonment for the eight defendants, insisting that “in 2024 we can no longer say: 'Since she didn't say anything, she agreed.' That's from another age."
However, Defence Attorney Guillaume De Palma told the Vaucluse Criminal Court that the only real debate, in his view, was that of guilty intent. He argued that his clients “did not know, could not have known, understood nothing.”
He also urged the court not to deliver its verdict, due on 19 or 20 December, solely on the basis of the videos presented during the case, otherwise there would be a risk of "apparent, photosensitive justice."
"Why don't we have in the exchanges: ‘You're going to rape a drugged woman in your uniform’? Why don't we have that? Because it doesn't exist!" he said, referring to Christian L., 56, an ex-fireman who once went to the Pelicot home in the middle of the day in February 2019 in professional clothing to sexually assault Gisèle.
Christian L. "was not at all in favour of having a sexual relationship with a woman who was asleep and on drugs. That was not Christian L's plan," he asserted.
Husband was a 'sexual predator,' says defence attorney
Walking a fine line, Mr De Palma referred to an alleged hand movement which, he said, could have led his client to believe that Gisèle Pelicot was conscious. "He is caressing her. It's not a rapist's gesture, I'm sorry to say," he continued.
On the civil parties' bench, Gisèle Pelicot gasped in exasperation and rolled her eyes.
The lawyer, who was heavily criticised at the start of the trial, including by some of his colleagues, for saying that "there is rape and rape," believes that his client's "consent" was "vitiated" by the manipulations of Pelicot's husband.
All the defendants, in his opinion, "were unable to extricate themselves from this criminal scheme. They were unaware, as were Gisèle Pelicot, her daughter, her sons, her son-in-law and her daughters-in-law," that Dominique Pelicot “was a sexual predator,” he continued.
Modern-day Minotaur
His colleague, Isabelle Crépin-Dehaene, likened Dominique Pelicot to the Minotaur, a figure from Greek mythology "half-man half-bull, symbol of man devoured by his impulses" who, in this case, was "lost in the labyrinth of the walls of the Mazan house with his 50 prey."
Her clients, Redouan E. and Ahmed T., against whom the prosecution has requested 12 years' imprisonment, were “carried away by the madness of a man who used them,” and fell into “the sexual scenario, that of the sleeping beauty” that Gisèle Pelicot was in their eyes, the lawyer argued.
"Do you think for a moment that any man, however stupid, would have agreed to the request: ‘Hello, I'm looking for a man to rape my chemically drugged wife’?" she asked.
Crépin-Dehaene feels, like her colleague Alexia Berard, who is defending Mahdi D. and Adrien L., that her clients simply believed in a “libertine scenario,” a practice they were fond of.
"These men went to the Minotaur to have consensual sex. These men were used," Ms.Crépin-Dehaene maintained.
