Defence lawyers plead to judges in French mass rape trial • FRANCE 24 English

39 comments

1. The defense needs to shut the hell up. Rape is Rape! If anything, each perpetrator should serve 20 years for Each act of RAPE, and not just 20 years as if it only occurred ONE DAMN TIME!

2. 20 years no less

3. I understand that this lawyer's role was to protect the husband, but to say that he was protecting his wife was utter nonsense. He just didn't want her to die as he would have been responsible for her death.

4. Drugged, Not asleep. Drugged. Unconscious of what was being done to her. Rape.

5. I was horrified listening to this news item. Dominique Pelicot was raped as a child? Then he should realise how awful rape is, and not use it as an excuse for his own appalling behaviour. There was no violence involved? Giselle Pelicot was repeatedly raped. That's violence. Mr Pelicot wants his family to remember him as the good man they thought he was before all this came to light? But he raped his wife over decades, so how can anyone think fondly of the man he was then? So many other points too. I understand the lawyer wanted to put forward some sort of defence, but all she did was make lame excuses. Shame on her. I hope that Mr Pelicot gets the maximum sentence, along with all the other defendants.

6. SA is NEVER about lovemaking or love. The whole point is to harm the victim; that's why it's *violence*.

7. What a gent — he insisted the men he brought to rape his drugged wife not suffocate her during oral sex. That's slightly mitigated by the fact that he didn't let them wear condoms, including the HIV positive man who "participated" multiple times.

8. Who are the other 20? Judges? Police?

9. I am sick and tired of blaming every criminal act on "childhood trauma". Millions more ppl experience childhood trauma and don't become criminals or grapists. You are an adult. Over 70. And still blaim childhood trauma? Enough is enough. Hold ppl accountable.

10. It turns my stomach to hear the “defence summation.” I know everyone is entitled to a defence etc etc but in this case, it is only serving to more clearly point out the horrific facts of this unbelievable saga.

11. Violence occurs when a person resists.. She was unconcious, how was she supposed to to resist??
    She wasnt even aware for years..
    If a person thinks even for a second of her psychi, the fact that her husband used her as a sex object for other people's pleasure is the most violent of all crimes ever…

12. She was not asleep she was unconscious. Use the proper terminology. Asleep means you can wake up.

13. He told the other men to "go slow" so that she could breathe to make sure that she didn't die. He didn't want to get caught and he didn't want to be accused of murder. He had no consideration for her well-being whatsoever. You cannot force a man to rape anybody. He participated in a gang rape, he wasn't forced to do it. He didn't force the two men to rape his wife because it's impossible to do it. All it proves is that he is a predator and a repeat offender, who is still dangerous even though he is elderly. He should be locked away for the rest of his life.

14. There is nothing but nothing that could be any kind of excuse for their behavior. Mr. Pelicot should be charged with attempted murder. She could have died from all the drugs he gave her.

15. Lawyer to the Devil, damn straight! Had he not been caught, he would have continued to do it until she died. Rape is a violent act on its own and by definition. By ‘protecting’ her he only wanted that it was not obvious to her what was happening when she awoke in the morning, so he could continue to rape her repeatedly. He played the role of doting father/husband by day and her worst nightmare/the Devil by night. This is psychopathic behaviour and beyond manipulative! Fancy accompanying your wife to Doctors appointments and gaslight her into believing her symptoms were due to something other than the horrific reality. You don’t love someone when you treat them that way. He never intended to get caught, he thought after 10 years he could get away with it until the day she died. It is a shockingly violent betrayal and I only hope Gisele and her children find peace from here on in. ❤

16. No violence? What about that Gisele Pelicot stated that on waking she had felt pain like she had given birth and attended gynaecology appointments to try to figure out why she was experiencing this.

17. The virtue signaling is painful and enraging in this context. And saying there was no violence is beyond rude. And I lost it when I heard about the poem. How stupid, how embarassing is this man?

18. Ugh. That's the most disgusting closing argument I've ever heard of. Also, "without violence"???? How is drugging someone repeatedly, to the extent that she suffered from multiple medical issues and pain, not "violence"???

19. Also give the reporter the benefit of the doubt and it was a slip of the tongue or English is in her first language. But she wasn't asleep. She was unconscious. Falling asleep is a passive term. Being unconscious applies that there was substances given to her without her consent. Or there was violence involved. And in this case both is true. Words matter and they have meaning.

20. Rape is violence. Period. The defence argument is a flimsy fairytale spun to try to ameliorate massive depravity, deceit and betrayal.

21. "this whole affair"….please stop calling it "the affair". Its a crime not and affair.

22. Shame on the defense lawyer…may she never get a good nights sleep again

23. Narcissists do not mind so much being caught if it gets them international attention. They all should be sent to prison for 20 years each.

24. This is insane. And she was drugged how many times for this to happen. Did she ever question what was going on and how she felt. So many questions was she held against her will

25. Oh he wrote her a poem now? That's creepy AF!

26. If no lawyer had been prepared to defend him then he could have defended himself.

27. Having them be careful is so that she didn't start wondering where bruises and other sore parts were coming from not for her safety but to hide it further

28. It really sux that the defence lawyer is a woman

29. His lawyer: “sought to protect her in his own clumsy way” by making sure she could breathe during forced oral sex.

    Protect her or protect his cashcow? Jesus Christ.

30. There is no way to defend any one of this rapists.

31. How did this go on for so long. How drugged was she? Didn't she feel weird in the morning? He not only raped her he controlled her mind😢

32. Seriously, how can anyone excuse this man's and the men he encouraged to rape his wife's behaviour? Please do not make him out to be a victim. Many children, both male and female, are abused emotionally, sexually, and physically and become adults who do not commit crimes. This man is an adult he had a choice to abuse someone else (his wife) for his sexual gratification or not. Whatever he experienced as a child or adult does not give him permission to take away another person's right to decide how they or their body expects to be treated

33. Childhood trauma is never an excuse for someone to commit heinous crimes. As an adult you are responsible for your actions and you are accountable to God and everyone. What a lame excuse to give in court! Now that you were caught, all these excuses are surfacing. 😵‍💫

34. Defence lawyers are to ensure a fair trial, not make up victimhood for beasts and sub humans.

35. How disgusting is it they read a nice little poem from him… That's exactly the kind of gaslighting women (or anyone really) experiences in this type of relationships, and they used it as argument in court… Yeah but… But he is actually nice, but they had had good times, but he said sorry, but he needs her, but he is hurt himself, but he wrote her a lovepoem, but he is the father of her children, bit he didn't really mean to, but look at him, but he promised to never do it again… We know this and we're sick of it! It shouldn't be tolerated and this strategy should be called out not repeated IN COURT!

36. Rape can NOT be a nonviolent act. It challenges what we call violence, but rape IS violence, it is dehumanization.

37. I mean, I guess we can be grateful they can do nothing but bring up actual, straight-up nonsense as an attempt to defend the accused. That in itself is a statement that they literally have nothing to say to defend the despicable acts of these disgusting beings.
    (And lol @ YouTube deleting people’s comments. Putin is proud.)

38. Say again? His attorney read a poem out loud to the court that he wrote for Giselle?

39. I hope no one hire you

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