Pélicot case: the lawyer for the accused has an argument that infuriates the victim's family

A defense attorney's argument around the definition of “rape” does not go down well with the victim's family at all.

For several days, Dominique Pélicot, the main accused, has been expected to appear in court. This absence is justified by his state of health, which has “worsened”, according to the presiding judge. The latter assured this Wednesday, as reported by BFMTV, that the man accused of drugging his wife to deliver her to unknown persons will not be able to appear until "Monday at best". However, Dominique Pélicot is far from being the only one charged, 50 other men are accused of aggravated rape of Gisèle Pélicot. The trial will therefore continue.

Tensions have escalated during the last few days of the trial, particularly over the use of the term “rape”. On Tuesday evening, Stéphan Gal, one of the directors of investigation at the Avignon judicial police, who has viewed all the videos of the accused's actions, said: that “it's always the same feeling: there is no consent, the acts are perpetrated on an unconscious person”, thus ensuring that it is a “rape scene”. Guillaume De Palma, defense lawyer, then retorted: “Wasn't this certainty a little hasty” ?. Following In answering this question, the investigator supports his remarks by making a comparison with score-settling cases: “In this case, the suspect is being prosecuted for murder. There will be a trial, but the term 'murder' is used and it is not shocking at all”. 

If the lawyer agrees, he had a response that has put the victim's family out of it: "There is rape and rape and, without the intention to commit it, there is no rape". Caroline Darian, the daughter of the Pélicot couple, in particular, launched very angry “It's a shame”, while the defense continued to chain new arguments. Antoine Camus, one of the lawyers of the latter and her mother, for his part, considered these remarks “unbearable” for his clients.

"We are not under American law"

As he left the court, the defense lawyer had to justify himself with such statements: “From the moment that, in fact, there is a guilty intention, from the moment that we can provide proof that the person who committed the acts was aware that they were committing acts of rape, there is rape. Otherwise, there is no rape”, thus summarizing the entire line of the defense. On the issue of consent, the lawyer cut the subject short: “We are not in American law, in France, we do not have to have obtained the consent of the victim, to necessarily ensure that there is no rape, it is necessary that the demonstration be made of the guilty intention of the perpetrator. If the perpetrator was mistaken, was mistaken, the Court of Cassation always says that there is no rape".

What does the law really say on the subject ? In France, rape is defined in the Penal Code as follows: "Any act of sexual penetration, of whatever nature, or any oral-genital act committed on the person of another or on the person of the perpetrator by violence, constraint, threat or surprise". Only constraint, threat or surprise, that is to say consent, characterize rape. Dominique Pélicot's lawyer returned to this definition of rape to BFMTV, considering that  "the penal code clearly states that rape is rape, and the law does not distinguish between rape and rape".

Despite the numerous clues supporting the opposite, in particular the videos, the statements of Dominique Pélicot or the unequivocal instructions received by the accused before going to the couple's home, the lawyers maintain that their clients were convinced that Gisèle Pelicot was pretending to be asleep and was thus participating in a “libertine scenario” consented to by all parties. For the lawyers, using the term “rape” compromises the presumption of innocence.