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PARIS. – They are young, old, burly, thin, black and white.
Among them are firefighters, lorry drivers, soldiers, security guards, a journalist and a DJ.
These are the 50 men accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot MORE THAN 200 times at the behest of her husband, Dominique Pelicot, 72, who drugged her for a decade with prescription sleeping pills.
He even filmed the sex attacks.
The fact they broadly represent a microcosm of French society means they have been dubbed Monsieur-Tout-Le-Monde (Mr Everyman).
Next week they are due to be sentenced, at the end of a trial that started in September. If found guilty, collectively they face more than 600 years in jail.
A few of them act defiant, but they mostly look down as they answer questions from the judges, looking up occasionally to catch their lawyers’ eyes for reassurance. Most of the 50 all come from towns and villages in a 50km radius of the Pelicots’ own village of Mazan.
Some defence lawyers have seen in their ordinariness a valuable line of defence. “Ordinary people do extraordinary things,” said Antoine Minier, a lawyer representing three defendants.
“I think almost everybody could end up in a situation – well, maybe not exactly like this one – but could be susceptible to committing a serious crime,” he told the BBC.
Prosecutors have based their sentencing demands to the court on aggravating factors. How many times the defendants came to the Pelicot home, whether they touched Gisèle Pelicot sexually, and if they penetrated her.
Joseph C, 69, a retired sports coach and doting grandfather, faces four years in jail for sexual assault if found guilty. That is the most lenient sentence requested by prosecutors.
At the other end of the scale, is Romain V, 63, who faces 18 years in prison.
He was knowingly HIV-positive and is accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot on six separate occasions without wearing protection – although his lawyer told the court he had treatment for several years and couldn’t have transmitted the virus.
Prosecutors have been able to go into this level of detail because, unusually for a rape trial, there is a staggering amount of evidence, as the alleged assaults were filmed over almost a decade by Dominique Pelicot.
He has admitted all the charges against him and has told the court all 50 of his co-accused are guilty too. All the video evidence means none of the men have been able to deny they ever went to the Pelicots’ home. But the majority vehemently contest the charges of aggravated rape that would incur hefty sentences.
France’s rape law defines rape as any sexual act committed by “violence, coercion, threat or surprise”; it has no reference to any need for consent.
Therefore, they also argue they cannot be guilty of rape because they were unaware Gisèle Pelicot was not in a position to give her consent.
“There can be no crime without the intention to commit it,” said one defence lawyer.
“My body raped her, but my brain didn’t,” insisted volunteer firefighter Christian L, in an example of the convoluted reasoning offered by some of the men.
The one man of the 50 who is not accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot is Jean-Pierre M, 63, who has been dubbed Dominique Pelicot’s “disciple”.
Having learned how to drug his wife in order to abuse her, he did so for five years and admits it.
He blames his crimes on meeting Dominique Pelicot, who he says was “reassuring, like a cousin”. Prosecutors are seeking a 17-year jail term.
Ahmed T, a 54-year-old plumber who has been married to his childhood sweetheart for 30 years, said that if had he wanted to rape someone, he would have not chosen a woman in her 60s.
Redouane A, an unemployed man aged 40, argued that if he had set out to rape Gisèle he would not have allowed her husband to take videos.
Some also say they were intimidated by Dominique Pelicot, who one lawyer told the BBC, was an “abominable character”.
In tears, male nurse Redouan E told the courtroom he was too scared of him to leave the bedroom. “Maybe you can’t tell from the videos, but I was really terrified!” he told judges.
Others maintain they were offered drinks that were spiked with drugs and therefore cannot remember the encounter, although Dominique Pelicot has denied ever doing this.
But Dominique Pelicot has always said he made it abundantly clear to the men that his wife was not aware of the plot.
He gave them instructions to avoid waking her up or leaving traces that they had been there – such as warming their hands before touching his wife, or not smelling of perfume or cigarettes, he said.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter