World
October 10, 2024 17:00
france - French Gisèle Pélicot (71), the victim in the intense serial rape case, had to leave the courtroom for the first time after hearing a man's testimony become too much for her.
Gisèle Pélicot has been sitting in the courtroom every day for weeks, listening to the testimonies of the men who raped her for years while she was drugged by her husband Dominique. However, on Wednesday, it became too much for her for the first time when 42-year-old Vincent C. took the stand and caused Pélicot to leave the courtroom.
The man visited the Pélicots' house twice, once in October 2019 and once in January 2020. But he denies raping her. He stated during the trial that he went to the house thinking he would participate in a threesome. But when he arrived, Dominique Pélicot told him that his wife "had gone to bed and taken a sleeping pill."
"I thought to myself: 'We'll go to the bedroom, we'll wake her up,'" he said in the courtroom. "Were you surprised that she did not wake up?" asked the presiding judge. "I found it strange, but I never thought of the unimaginable," he replied.
"Mrs. Pélicot is in front of you, completely unconscious, according to the pictures I have in front of my eyes... And you insert your penis into her mouth. Doesn't that indicate that something abnormal is happening?" asked the judge. Vincent C. answered nonchalantly, "Honestly, I wasn't thinking at that moment."
"Mr. C., I'm sorry. I understand that you (at that moment, ed.) were drunk, driven by sexual needs. But there is a person there who is suffocating. Then you still have the ability to think," insisted the judge irritatedly to the man. "At that moment, no. It should have, I agree, but I don't understand why...," replied Vincent C., hardly audible.
Laure Chabaud, the attorney general, then took over. "Assuming we are in the context of what you call 'a scenario or a game': if we put ourselves in the place of a completely unconscious woman, can we wonder what the point of such a game is?" she asked. "Yes," replied the suspect.
"What is the benefit for you to have sex with a completely motionless body?" the attorney general continued. "For me, that was not important, but it was for the couple, to satisfy them," the man claimed. "So it was pure kindness?" responded Chabaud, almost choking on her words.
At that moment, Pélicot stood up to leave the courtroom. Her lawyer tried to stop her, to which the woman shouted, "I can't stand that man!" She then left the room for a few minutes. When Pélicot returned, a video of one of the rapes was shown. The courtroom could hear Pélicot snoring. While the video was playing, Vincent C. kept looking down the whole time.
Antoine Camus, Pélicot's lawyer, then spoke. "Why don't you want to watch these videos?" he asked. "Because I've never seen them. I know what I've done, and it's unbearable," the man replied. "Do you still think you made a couple happy?" the lawyer continued. "I think I entertained the husband, not the couple," the suspect finally admitted.