The 50 males accused of the gang rape of Gisèle Pelicot

They’re younger, previous, sturdy, skinny, black and white. They embody firefighters, truck drivers, troopers, safety guards, a journalist and a DJ.

These are the 50 males accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot on the behest of her husband, Dominique Pelicot, 72, who drugged her for a decade with prescription sleeping drugs.

The truth that they largely characterize a microcosm of French society has earned them the nickname Mr. Everyman (Mr. Everyman).

They’re on account of be sentenced subsequent week, following a trial which started in September. If convicted, they collectively face greater than 600 years in jail.

Just a few of them are defiant, however they typically decrease their eyes when answering the judges’ questions, typically wanting as much as meet their legal professionals’ eyes for reassurance.

Warning: some particulars of this story might disturb you.

The 50 individuals all come from cities and villages positioned inside a 50 km radius across the village of Pélicots, Mazan.

Some protection attorneys noticed their peculiar lives as a beneficial line of protection. “Unusual individuals do extraordinary issues,” mentioned Antoine Minier, a lawyer representing three defendants.

“I feel nearly anybody might discover themselves in a scenario – properly, perhaps not precisely like this – however may very well be vulnerable to committing a severe crime,” he informed the BBC.

Prosecutors primarily based their sentencing requests in court docket on aggravating circumstances. What number of instances the defendants got here to the Pelicot residence, whether or not they sexually touched Gisèle Pelicot, and whether or not they penetrated her.

Joseph C, 69, a retired sports activities coach and devoted grandfather, faces 4 years in jail for sexual assault if convicted. That is essentially the most lenient sentence requested by prosecutors.

On the different finish of the dimensions, Romain V, 63, faces 18 years in jail. He was knowingly HIV optimistic and but he’s accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot six instances with out sporting safety.

Prosecutors have been ready to enter this degree of element as a result of, unusually in a rape trial, there’s a staggering quantity of proof, as the alleged attacks were filmed for almost a decade by Dominique Pelicot.

He admitted all prices in opposition to him and informed the court docket that each one 50 co-defendants have been equally responsible.

All of the video proof signifies that not one of the males might deny ever having been to the Pelicots’ residence. However the majority vehemently disputes the costs of aggravated rape which might carry heavy sentences.

French rape legislation defines rape as any sexual act dedicated by “violence, coercion, risk or shock”; it makes no reference to the necessity for consent.

They subsequently additionally keep that they can’t be responsible of rape as a result of they have been unaware that Gisèle Pelicot was not in a position to give consent.

“There will be no crime with out intent to commit it,” mentioned one protection legal professional.

“My physique violated her, however not my mind,” insisted volunteer firefighter Christian L, as an example the convoluted reasoning proposed by some males.

The one man in his fifties who will not be accused of the rape of Gisèle Pelicot is Jean-Pierre M, 63, nicknamed the “disciple” of Dominique Pelicot.

Having realized to drug his spouse to abuse her, he did it for 5 years and admits it.

He attributes his crimes to his assembly with Dominique Pélicot, whom he says was “reassuring, like a cousin”. Prosecutors are in search of a 17-year jail sentence.

Ahmed T, a 54-year-old plumber who has been married to his childhood sweetheart for 30 years, mentioned that if he had wished to rape somebody, he wouldn’t have chosen a girl in her 60s.

Redouane A, an unemployed 40-year-old, argued that if he had determined to rape Gisèle, he wouldn’t have allowed her husband to movie.

Some additionally say they’re intimidated by Dominique Pélicot, who, in response to a BBC lawyer, was an “abominable character”.

In tears, nurse Redouan E informed the court docket he was too afraid of himself to go away the room. “Perhaps you’ll be able to’t inform from the movies, however I used to be actually terrified!” he informed the judges.

Others declare that they have been provided drinks spiked with medication and subsequently don’t keep in mind the assembly, regardless that Dominique Pelicot denied having performed so.

The bulk, nevertheless, declare to have been manipulated or deceived by Dominique Pelicot, who satisfied them that they have been taking part in a sexual recreation with a consensual couple.

“They have been put in a scenario the place they have been ripped off,” Christophe Bruschi, Joseph C’s lawyer, informed the BBC. “They have been taken for a journey.”

However Dominique Pélicot at all times claimed to have made it clear to the lads that his spouse was not conscious of the plot.

He gave them directions to keep away from waking her or leaving traces of their presence — akin to warming their arms earlier than touching his spouse, or not smelling fragrance or cigarettes, he mentioned.

“All of them knew it, they cannot deny it.”

Since September, the 50 males have appeared, one after the opposite, earlier than the Avignon court docket.

Often, in rape instances, morality investigations can take a number of days.

On this trial, as a result of giant variety of defendants concerned, these have been condensed into a couple of hours at most. Their lives have been dissected at document velocity, typically turning the viewers right into a litany of tales of abuse and trauma.

Simoné M, a 43-year-old building employee, mentioned he was raped when he was 11 by a household buddy who employed him to have a tendency livestock within the French abroad territory of Nouvelle -Caledonia.

Father-of-four Jean-Luc L, 46, informed the court docket how he and his household left Vietnam on a dinghy when he was a toddler and lived in a refugee camp in Thailand for a number of years earlier than settling In France.

Fabien S, a 39-year-old man who has already been convicted a number of instances, notably for drug trafficking and sexual assault of a minor, was mistreated and overwhelmed by adoptive dad and mom from a really younger age. Like a number of others, he mentioned he solely realized throughout court-ordered psychiatrist appointments that his hazy, painful childhood recollections really constituted rape.

Lots of the defendants’ wives, companions and relations have been known as to make character statements. They too have been trying to find solutions, making an attempt to know how the lads of their lives might have gotten “caught in this type of scenario,” as one girl put it.

“I used to be shocked, it is not like him in any respect. He was the enjoyment of my life,” Christian L’s aged father mentioned.

The firefighter can also be beneath investigation for possessing pictures of kid abuse, as are 4 others, and faces 16 years in jail. “One thing will need to have occurred, he will need to have change into depressed,” his father questioned aloud.

Corinne, the ex-wife of Thierry Pa, 54, a former mason, mentioned he had at all times been “form” and “respectful” to her and their youngsters and appeared to go away the door open to a reconciliation with him.

“After they informed me what he was accused of, I mentioned: ‘by no means, it is not possible… I do not perceive in any respect what he is doing right here.'” She thought that was the dying of their 18 yr previous son who was on the origin of this example. had induced her ex-husband to sink right into a deep despair, to begin ingesting and eventually to contact Dominique Pelicot.

“I’ll at all times be there for him, no matter occurs,” mentioned the Guyanese’s ex-girlfriend Joan Ok. At 27, he’s the youngest of the defendants and a former soldier within the French military.

He denied having raped Gisèle Pelicot twice. Though he knew she can be unconscious, he mentioned he didn’t notice she had not given consent.

In tears, a girl named Samira recounts having spent three and a half years “searching for solutions” ​​to the the reason why Jérôme V had gone to the Pélicots six instances.

“We had intercourse day by day, I don’t perceive why he needed to look elsewhere,” she sobbed. She continues to be in a relationship with Jérôme V, who was working at a greengrocer on the time of his arrest.

He is likely one of the few to have admitted to raping Gisèle, saying he favored the thought of ​​having “free rein” over her – however he blamed it on his “uncontrollable sexuality”.

Lots of the defendants’ former and present companions have been examined to see in the event that they too had been drugged like Gisèle. One girl mentioned she would “at all times have a horrible doubt” that the “respectful, caring and mild man” she knew had additionally abused her with out her data.

For the reason that begin of the trial, there was a variety of speak about the necessity to discover one thing that ties all these males collectively.

A typical denominator – other than the truth that all the lads went to the Pélicots of their very own free will – “stays nowhere to be discovered”, say Gisèle’s personal legal professionals.

However there’s one issue that each one the accused undoubtedly have in frequent: all of them made a aware selection to not go to the police.

Firefighter Jacques C, 73, mentioned he considered it however “then life went on”, whereas electrician Patrice N, 55, mentioned he “did not need to waste his complete day on the police station”.

From the primary days of the trial, Gisèle Pelicot was requested if she thought it was official to assume that these males had been manipulated by her husband.

She shook her head, “They did not rape me with a gun to my head. They raped me with full conscience.”

Virtually as an afterthought, she requested, “Why didn’t they go to the police?” Even an nameless cellphone name might have saved my life.

“However none did,” she mentioned after a pause. “Not a single one in all them.”