Mass trial sheds light on rape culture in France: NPR

Gisele Pelicot, who was allegedly drugged by her now-former husband so he and others could attack her, arrived at a courthouse in Avignon, southern France, on October 16.

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AVIGNON, France – At first glance, they are the most ordinary of men. Fathers, grandfathers, husbands, workers and retirees. Yet they are all on trial for rape – 50 in all – and are accused of taking turns attacking the drugged and motionless body of Gisèle Pelicot while her husband recorded the horror for his private video library.

The unprecedented trial in France shows how pornography, chat rooms and men's disdain or unclear understanding of consent fuel rape culture. The horror is not only that Dominique Pelicot, in his own words, arranged for men to rape his wife, but that he also had no trouble finding dozens of them to join in.

Among the nearly two dozen defendants who testified in the first seven weeks of the trial was Ahmed T. – the full last names of French defendants are typically withheld until sentencing. The married plumber with three children and five grandchildren said he wasn't particularly concerned that Pelicot wasn't moving when he visited her and her now-ex-husband's home in the small town of Mazan, Provence, in 2019.

It reminded him of porn he'd seen that showed women “pretending to be asleep and not responding,” he said.

Like him, many other defendants told the court they could not have imagined Dominique Pelicot drugging his wife and were told she was a willing participant living out a kinky fantasy. Dominique Pelicot denied this and told the court that his co-defendants knew exactly what the situation was.

For the first time since the trial began, Gisèle Pelicot spoke Wednesday about her husband's “immeasurable” betrayal and expressed sympathy for the wives, mothers and sisters of his 50 co-defendants, French media reported.

“I always wanted to pull you up, to the light,” she said, turning to her ex-husband. “You have chosen the depths of the human soul.”

Céline Piques, a spokeswoman for the feminist group Osez le Féminisme!, or Dare Feminism!, said she believed many of the men on trial were inspired by porn or perverted. Although some websites have begun cracking down on search terms like “unconscious,” hundreds of videos of men having sex with seemingly unconscious women can be found online, she said.

Piques was particularly impressed by the testimony at the trial of a technology expert who found the search terms “sleep porn” on Dominique Pelicot's computer.

Last year, French authorities registered 114,000 victims of sexual violence, including more than 25,000 reported rapes. But experts say most rapes go unreported due to a lack of hard evidence: About 80% of women don't report it, and 80% of those who do are dropped before an investigation begins.

This trial was unique in its scope, nature and openness to the public at the insistence of the victim.

After a store security guard caught Pelicot filming videos of unsuspecting women's skirts in 2020, police searched his home and found thousands of pornographic photos and videos on his phone, laptop and USB stick. Dominique Pelicot later said he recorded, saved and carefully organized the sexual encounters of each of his guests into separate files.

Protesters in Paris supported assault victim Gisele Pelicot at a gathering on September 14.

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Among those he had with him was Mahdi D., who testified that when he left his home on the night of October 5, 2018, he had no intention of raping anyone.

“I thought she was sleeping,” the 36-year-old transport worker told the five-judge panel, referring to Gisèle Pelicot, who was present almost every day of the trial and has become a hero to many victims of sexual abuse for insisting has that it is public.

“I grant you that you did not leave with the intention of raping anyone,” the prosecutor told him. “But it was you in the room.”

Like some of the other men accused of raping Pelicot between 2011 and 2020, Mahdi D. admitted almost all of the facts brought against him. And he expressed his remorse and told the judges: “She is a victim. We can't imagine what she went through. It was destroyed.”

But he wouldn't call it rape, even though he admitted that might get him a lighter sentence. This prompted prosecutors to ask the court to show the graphic videos of Mahdi D's visit to the Pelicot house.

In June, authorities closed the chat room where Dominique Pelicot and his co-defendants allegedly met. Since the trial began on September 2, it has resonated far beyond the walls of the Avignon courtroom, sparking protests in French cities large and small and inspiring a steady stream of opinion pieces and open letters from journalists, philosophers and activists.

It has also drawn curious visitors to the city in southeastern France, such as Florence Nack, her husband and their 23-year-old daughter, who traveled from Switzerland to witness the “historic trial.”

Nack, who noted that she too had been a victim of sexual violence, said she was disturbed by the testimony of 43-year-old trucker Cyprien C., a defendant who spoke in court that day.

When asked by Chief Justice Roger Arata whether he acknowledged the facts, Cyprien C. replied that he “did not deny the sexual act.”

“And the rape?” Arata pressed. The defendant stood in silence before finally answering, “I can’t answer.”

Arata then began to describe what was in the videos that cast suspicion on him. They are only displayed as a last resort and in individual cases. But for many in the courtroom, such detailed descriptions can take several minutes and be just as distressing as watching them. Gisèle Pelicot, in her early 70s, decided to remain in the courtroom while the videos were shown. Since she can't watch, she usually closes her eyes, stares at the floor, or buries her face in her hands.

Experts and groups working to combat sexual violence say the defendants' unwillingness or inability to admit to rape is clear evidence of taboos and stereotypes that persist in French society.

For Magali Lafourcade, a judge and secretary general of the National Advisory Commission on Human Rights who is not involved in the trial, popular culture has given people a false idea of ​​what rapists look like and how they operate.

“It's the idea of ​​a hooded man with a knife that you don't know, waiting for you in a place that's not a private place,” she said, noting that this is “miles away from the sociological, criminological reality “rape.”

Two-thirds of rapes occur in private homes and in the vast majority of cases the victims know their rapists, Lafourcade said.

At times it can be difficult to reconcile the facts with the personalities of the defendants, who are described by relatives as loving, generous and considerate comrades, brothers and fathers.

Cyril B.'s tearful older sister told the court: “It's my brother, I love him. He's not a mean person.” His partner insisted that he wasn't “macho” and that he had never forced her to do anything sexual that made her uncomfortable.

Lafourcade said that unlike the #MeToo allegations that have engulfed French celebrities, the Pelicot case “makes us realize that a rapist can actually be anyone.”

“For once they’re not monsters – they’re not serial killers on the fringes of society. They are men who resemble the ones we love,” she said. “There is something revolutionary in that sense.”