A defense attorney’s argument about the definition of “rape” is not going down well with the victim’s family.
For several days, Dominique Pélicot, the main accused, has been expected to appear in court. This absence is justified by his state of health, which has “worsened”, according to the president of the court. The latter assured this Wednesday, as reported by BFMTVthat the man accused of drugging his wife to deliver her to strangers will not be able to appear until “at best Monday”. That being said, Dominique Pélicot is far from being the only one charged, 50 other men are accused of aggravated rape of Gisèle Pélicot. The trial will therefore continue.
Tensions have risen a notch in the last few days of the trial, particularly around the use of the term “rape”. On Tuesday evening, Stéphan Gal, one of the directors of investigation for the Avignon judicial police, who has viewed all the videos of the accused’s actions, said that “it’s always the same feeling: there is no consent, the acts are perpetrated on an unconscious person”, thus assuring that it was a “rape scene”. Guillaume De Palma, the defence lawyer, then retorted: “Wasn’t this certainty a bit hasty?” Following this question, the investigator supported his remarks by making a comparison with cases of settling scores: “In this case, the suspect is being prosecuted for murder. There will be a trial, but the term ‘murder’ is used and it is not shocking for all that”.
If the lawyer agreed, he had a response that infuriated the victim’s family: “There is rape and rape and, without the intention to commit it, there is no rape”. Caroline Darian, the daughter of the Pélicot couple, in particular, launched very angrily “It’s a disgrace”, while the defense continued to chain new arguments. Antoine Camus, one of the lawyers of the latter and her mother, for his part considered these remarks “unbearable” for his clients.
“We are not in American law”
As he left the courtroom, the defense attorney had to justify such statements: “From the moment that there is indeed a guilty intent, from the moment that we can prove that the person who committed the acts was aware that they were committing acts of rape, there is rape. Otherwise, there is no rape,” thus summarizing the entire line of the defense. On the question of consent, the attorney cut the subject short: “We are not in American law, in France, you do not have to have obtained the consent of the victim, to necessarily ensure that there is no rape, the guilty intent of the perpetrator must be demonstrated. If the perpetrator was mistaken, was mistaken, the Court of Cassation always says that there is no rape.”
What does the law really say on the subject? In France, rape is defined in the Penal Code as follows: “Any act of sexual penetration, of whatever nature, or any oral-genital act committed on the person of another or on the person of the perpetrator by violence, constraint, threat or surprise”. Only constraint, threat or surprise, that is to say consent, characterize rape. Dominique Pélicot’s lawyer returned to this definition of rape with BFMTV, considering that “the penal code clearly states that rape is rape, and the law does not distinguish between rape and rape”.
Despite the many indications to the contrary, including videos, Dominique Pélicot’s statements and the unequivocal instructions received by the accused before going to the couple’s home, the lawyers maintain that their clients were convinced that Gisèle Pelicot was pretending to be asleep and was thus participating in a “libertine scenario” agreed to by all parties. For the lawyers, using the term “rape” compromises the presumption of innocence.