“It’s the trial of a whole family wiped out.”said this Monday the eldest son of Gisèle and Dominique PélicotDavid, who testified for the first time before the Court of Avignon (France) where the septuagenarian and 50 other defendants in France’s largest chemical rape case are on trial.
In the eleventh week of sessions, already in the final stretch of the trial, the two sons of the ex-couple, David and Florian, aged 50 and 38 years oldrespectively, have testified in the case in which their own father is on trial for raping his wife under chemical submission and also offering them to dozens of rapists.
Thus, the eldest of the sons, David, has directly addressed the presiding judge, Roger Arata, to ask him to to be “at the height” of the suffering he is undergoing. together with his siblings and the defendants, starting with his father, “be punished for their horrors”.
David Pélicot has also looked his father in the face to tell him: “Tell us what you have done to my sister and my children.” From the beginning of the trial, daughter, Caroline Darianmaintains that her father took photographs of her while she was drugged and raped her, as he did for a decade with her mother.
“She suffered blackmail.”
“I gave the most I could to my children, to my grandchildren, I wish that one day you will have proof that I nothing happened. I took pictures of them because I was being blackmailed.“The accused tried to justify himself. “I apologize,” Pélicot insisted. “Never,” his son repeatedly blurted out to cut his father off while his younger siblings broke down in tears.
“Why did you do this? You were saying that our mother was a saint, but you were the devil“, wondered Florian, 38, who assured that, after the revelation of all these facts, he “lost” his father and his three children to his grandfather.
Finally has taken the floor Carolina Darian, the daughter of the couple, 45 years old, who has taken advantage of her new statement to insist on her conviction of having been raped by her father. “It is not a hypothesis, I know“, he said.
This Tuesday will be the last statement of Gisèle and Dominique Pélicot. before sentencing. The intention of the president of the Court of Avignon, Roger Arata, is to begin this Wednesday with the requests for penalties of the private prosecution, that is to say, of the lawyers of Gisèle Pelicot. On Thursday, it will be the turn of the Prosecutor’s Office, which will last until Friday. Next week would be the turn of the defenses. The sentence is expected on December 20.