Berliner Tageblatt - Public shown video evidence in France mass rape trial

The judge in the southern city of Avignon had nine videos and several photographs of the abuse of Gisele Pelicot shown in the courtroom and an adjoining public chamber, involving seven of the 50 men accused alongside her husband.

Present in the courtroom herself, Gisele Pelicot looked at her telephone during the hour and a half of screenings, while her ex-husband in the dock covered his eyes and several of his co-defendants watched themselves on the screen or stared at the floor.

Gisele Pelicot has insisted on the trial being open to the public to draw attention to the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse, and had called for the lifting of restrictions on the screening of the images.

Reversing an earlier decision to keep the screenings behind closed doors, judge Roger Arata accepted a request by her lawyers for the public to be present when the images were shown.

They were screened to challenge testimonies from some of the accused that they were unaware the victim was unconscious.

After the images were shown on Friday, however, most stuck to their defence.

They had earlier said they had thought they were taking part in a sex game.

After the screenings, one said he had "no memory" of the event. Another said he was "terrorised" by Dominique Pelicot even if it "doesn't look like it" in the images.

A third said he had not heard Gisele Pelicot snoring or had "hoped she would wake up at the end".

- 'Find meaning in suffering' -

Dominique Pelicot filmed much of the abuse against his wife and also took meticulous records of the strangers visiting their home, which subsequently helped police uncover the crimes.

He has admitted to drugging his wife and inviting men to rape her between 2011 and 2020.

Arata ruled that the screening of video evidence would "not be systematic" and would occur only when "strictly necessary for exposing the truth", and at the request of one of the parties.

Gisele Pelicot's lawyer Stephane Babonneau said the ruling was a "victory" but "a victory in a fight that should not have been fought".

Gisele Pelicot's willingness to highlight her suffering has won widespread praise and made her a feminist icon in France.

"For Gisele Pelicot, it is too late. The harm is done," Babonneau said.

"But if these same hearings, through being publicised, help prevent other women from having to go through this, then she will find meaning in her suffering."

- Accidental-rape argument -

The trial is currently hearing testimony from the men charged with responding to Dominique Pelicot's solicitations and raping Gisele Pelicot.

Forty-nine other men are accused of raping or attempting to rape Gisele Pelicot. Another has admitted to sedating his own spouse so that he and Dominique Pelicot could sexually assault her.

Some lawyers for the other 50 accused opposed the screening of video evidence.

"Justice does not need that in order to proceed. What is the point of these revolting screenings?" said lawyer Olivier Lantelme.

But for Antoine Camus, another lawyer in Gisele Pelicot's team, the videos "cause the argument of accidental rape to collapse".

"It was in reality a question of hatred of women," he said.

Each defendant "contributed in their own small way to this banality of rape, to this banality of evil", he said.

Beatrice Zavarro, Dominique Pelicot's lawyer, who had previously backed the screening of the videos, did not comment on the issue on Friday.

The trial is scheduled to last until December.

G.Schulte--BTB