Defendant in France mass rape trial says ‘couldn’t control sexuality’

AVIGNON, France – A defendant in a mass rape trial that horrified France told the court Oct. 2 that he “couldn’t control his sexuality” in six rapes of a woman who was drugged until she was unconscious.

“I didn’t go back there because I liked ‘rape-style’ sex,” 46-year-old former supermarket worker Jerome V said outside the court in Avignon, where he is one of 51 defendants.

The men are accused of raping Gisele Pelicot, now 71, for nearly a decade after responding to online invitations from her then-husband Dominique Pelicot.

He orchestrated the abuse as she was drugged with anxiety medication between 2011 and 2020.

“It was because I couldn’t control my sexuality,” Jerome V said when asked why he kept returning to the couple’s home in the sleepy southern French town of Mazan.

Jerome V, who has admitted charges of aggravated rape, is one of 18 defendants being held in custody throughout the trial.

He claimed that on his first visit to Mazan in spring 2020, after a break-up and during a Covid-19 lockdown, he was “unable to stand up to Mr Pelicot” due to his “overwhelming sexuality”. I didn’t know how to say no to Mr. Pelicot.”

Jerome V first met Dominique Pelicot on the chat site Coco.fr, which has since been shut down by French authorities.

“The way (Pelicot) worked was to throw in pictures (of his then-wife) … hoping to trigger a reaction,” he said.

“In my case, the photos had an impact. I wanted to get out of there, I escaped, I hoped he wouldn’t contact me again, but I didn’t do anything to stop it,” Jerome V. admitted.

He ultimately visited the Pelicot home six times between March and June 2020.

“It’s hard to say why I couldn’t say, ‘This has to stop,'” he said.

Jerome V said he was afraid Dominique Pelicot would publish the photos of him raping Gisele Pelicot. “I was afraid of the impact,” he added.

Dominique Pelicot filmed much of his wife’s abuse, a practice that later allowed police to identify many of the men suspected of raping her after his arrest when he was caught taking photos of women’s skirts in a supermarket in 2020 became.

Jerome V said he was “under the spell” of Gisele Pelicot’s then-husband.

Psychologists called the defendant “weak,” “naive” and “not very assertive” in his testimony in court. AFP