The hearings end at the Mazan rape trial, in Avignon. Dominique Pelicot, accompanied by 50 co-defendants before the Vaucluse criminal court, is accused of having drugged his wife to rape her and have her raped by dozens of men. David, Florian and Caroline – the three children of the Pelicots – spoke on Monday November 18 in the afternoon and expressed all their resentment towards the main accused.
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“ A destroyed family »: Florian, David and Caroline, the three children of the Pelicot couple, returned on Monday to the explosion that this decade of rapes orchestrated against their mother by their father, whom they asked to “ tell the truth “, Finally.
“ Our family life was destroyed on November 2, 2020 “, David, the 50-year-old eldest, began in a confident tone. For nearly 30 minutes, he told the story of that night when he learned the unthinkable. He then recounted the hell experienced by the one he calls “ Mom », retraces our correspondent in Avignon, Tanita Fallet. “ It is very complicated to explain to your children that they will not see their grandfather again “, he confided, referring to his own children.
“ I feel like my whole childhood is gone », he regretted before turning to his father, Dominique Pelicotwhich he now calls “ Sir » : « But how could you do such a thing? ? »
“ You were the devil himself »
A question that Florian, the youngest, also asks himself. “ You said (from our mother) that she was a saint, but you were the devil himself », Assaid the youngest of the siblings to his father, taking over at the helm. “ It’s been four years since I lost my father “, even if it was “ less close » than the rest of the siblings.
He then expressed his doubts about the paternity of Dominique Pelicot, and thinks he is the result of an extra-marital relationship, wishing to carry out a paternity test, because he “ no longer sleeps at night “. No matter, today he considers himself the son “ of one of the greatest criminals of these 20 recent years “.
Caroline Darian, “ the great forgotten one of this trial »
A formula taken from his sister Caroline, who had already spoken at the start of the debates. She, who now calls herself Caroline Darian, her mother’s maiden name, returned to the stand this Monday with a new message: “ I am the one most forgotten in this trial “, she chanted. “ I know that I was abused by Dominique. » On the files stored in Dominique Pelicot’s computer, investigators discovered images of Caroline naked, taken without her knowledge. In some, she appears asleep, sometimes wearing her mother’s underwear.
Since then, she has been convinced » that she too was drugged and raped by her father. Facts that he persisted in denying Monday. This conviction, without proof, is the driving force behind Caroline Darian’s fight: that against chemical submission, which she leads ” for all the invisible victims “.
After the hearing of the three Pelicot children on Monday, the court resumed in the afternoon the interrogation of the last two of the 51 accused. Once the cases of these two men are completed, it will be Gisèle Pelicot who must return to the stand on Tuesday, November 19. She indeed agreed to answer questions from the defense lawyers again. Then the floor will be given one last time to her ex-husband, before the start of the pleadings, probably on Wednesday.
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