The three children of the Pélicot couple spoke this Monday, November 18 before the Vaucluse criminal court, as part of the Mazan rape trial in which their father appears as the main accused.
David, Florian and Caroline, the three children of the Pélicot couple, spoke at length this afternoon of November 18. If Caroline, who considers herself “the one most forgotten in this trial” – only the image capture concerning her was retained by the courts -, had already had the opportunity to speak at the start of the Mazan rape trial , it was the first time that the sons of Gisèle and Dominique Pélicot gave their point of view.
Among their comments, far from being tender towards their father, who is accused of having drugged and orchestrated the rape of their mother by men recruited on the Internet for almost a decade, we will notably note those of the youngest of the siblings: Florian. Remembering an evening in Mazan, at his parents’ house, where he had seen his mother “drop out” after the aperitif, until being put to bed by her husband, he retraced the thread of the story: “The puzzle gets set up […] If I had forgotten something that evening, what would I have found…” He then spoke of his father who called his mother a “saint”: “Yes, she is a saint, she could not not be in the best place, he’s the devil!”, relates BFMTV. And to estimate: “It’s been four years since I lost my father.”
“How do we build ourselves?”
“We lacked nothing, we received a good education. But when we learn what is happening, this man who is my father, how we build ourselves, how we do things, what are the instructions ?” called out his father Florian Pélicot, as he lowered his head. And the couple’s third child revealed that this affair “cost him a divorce and a thousand questions”. While photos of his sister were also discovered in his father’s belongings, Florian Pélicot asked him to tell “the truth to Caroline”. “Today, we are all in survival. She is no longer alive.”
Florian Pélicot did not hesitate to speak of an “identity crisis”, expressing his desire to do a paternity test to find out if Dominique Pélicot was indeed his father, while his mother had an extramarital affair with the time of his birth. “It would be a relief not to be Dominique Pélicot’s son. […] It’s part of my personal reconstruction.” Florian Pélicot also called on his father’s co-defendants to take “their responsibilities”, before addressing his children, nephews and nieces: “Our children must be proud of bear this name Pélicot. Often, in criminal stories, we remember the name of the bad guy, but here, it’s Gisèle Pélicot who we remember.”
“My whole childhood has disappeared, it has been erased”
Before Florian, the eldest Pélicot, David, had spoken. “I lost a man who, like my mother, gave me a good education, values, a backbone,” he explained, not hesitating to evoke their complicity or even the admiration of some of his friends for his father. “My whole childhood disappeared, it was like erased,” he confided.
The tone rose between the son and the father when David called on Dominique Pélicot to tell “the truth” about his sister, who is certain to have also been drugged and raped, but also his own son, to whom Dominique Pélicot would have asked to “play doctor”. “If you still have a little humanity, you hear, I want you to tell the truth about the actions you had on my sister, who suffers every day and who will suffer all her life,” he said. declared, as reported franceinfoadding: “I will only pass once [à la barre] and I have no time to waste: on my son, tell us what you did!” From his box, Dominique Pélicot reacted: “Nothing, I didn’t do anything on anyone! On none of the children and grandchildren! Nothing !”
Last to speak, Caroline Darian, the daughter of the Pélicot couple, confided that she “considers[érer] like the great forgotten person of this trial.” “I know that I was sedated. This is not a hypothesis, it is a reality. I know it,” she declared, before emphasizing: “The only difference between Gisèle and me is tangible and implacable evidence. My life was put on hold. I am committed to all the victims of France, because the ‘Gisèle Pelicot’ [comprendre les victimes pour qui il existe des preuves ndlr.] It doesn’t exist, it’s 0.5%.” Caroline Darian created the #MendorsPas association to help victims of chemical submission.