This 39-year-old defendant, whose criminal record includes 18 mentions, returned to his extremely difficult background and to the facts of which he is accused. Like the vast majority of the 50 other defendants, he appears for “aggravated rape” of Gisèle Pelicot.
“The first acts of sexual assault took place between the ages of 2 and 3.” In a few words, the lawyer of Fabien S., 39, tries to sum up a life of incest, violence and suffering. The man she represents, at the Mazan rape trial, stands out from his 50 co-defendants: most have clean records, or only have a few mentions, for minor offences or crimes. He has a total of 18 mentions, including 16 convictions.
“Robbery with violence, carrying prohibited weapons in repeat offenses, possession and transportation of narcotics, robbery with violence, robbery in a group, malicious telephone calls, violence against a spouse…”lists Roger Arata, the president of the criminal court of Vaucluse, on Thursday, September 26, during his interrogation. Fabien S. is part of the second group of accused in this lengthy trial: there are six of them to be heard since Monday.
The man appears in custody, like 17 other defendants. Standing in his box, rectangular glasses, graying hair, he must look back on his life, “punctuated by difficulties”, euphemizes the president. Fabien S. seems to be used to it. He sweeps away, in a few sentences, years of hell. “I was sent to a foster family from the age of 3 until I was 18. In the first family, I was often punished with whips and sticks. They made me kneel for hours.”he says, hands behind his back.
“Afterwards, I went back to a home, then back to a foster family. I was abused. Then one day I went off the rails, and I went to a psychiatric hospital. I was 16 years old.”continues Fabien S. He spent “between one and one and a half years interned”said the psychiatrist expert heard on Wednesday, who considered that he presented all the signs of a borderline personality. “Which means he has to deal with a lot of emotional instability,” explained the doctor.
This was followed by years of wandering the streets of Toulon, from the time he came of age. “Seven years”he specifies. “I acted like an idiot to survive, to pay for food, to buy my alcohol, my shit. I stole.”he explains, explaining that he lived in squats and sometimes forced the doors of uninhabited dwellings to move in. “I was an alcoholic, I just drank all day long”describes the accused from his box.
At 27, he met his first girlfriend, and left the streets. They had a little girl together. “whose date of birth he does not remember”noted the psychiatrist, who noted at his home “great impulsiveness”. Fabien S. tells frankly that he has “slapped” and pushing his ex-partner into a ditch because she would not let him see their daughter. “I went to prison for that”The child is now 10 years old and he no longer sees her. He had three other children, but seems to have almost no contact with them in prison.
Beyond the physical violence, the specter of incest looms over the course of his interrogation, only when his lawyer encourages him to speak out on the subject. She insists that he say what he learned during the investigation of the Mazan case. “I found out I was abused in a home when I didn’t know,” he said.
Fabien S., who had been expressing himself well until now, struggles to continue. The lawyer does it for him: “The investigators, who consulted his file at the ASE [aide sociale à l’enfance], say they discovered that his father was incarcerated for sexual assaults, something he was unaware of”she explains softly. Before turning to him: “You discovered the reasons for your placement when you were a child.”she says, without saying more. Fabien S. is still in contact with his biological parents, and seems to want to maintain this bond.
“Was your sister raped by your brother?”she asks him again. “Yes”he replies. “Was she incarcerated too?” “Yes, because her husband abused her children and she did not report him.”the accused said laconically.
Fabien S. was convicted in his twenties for “sexual assault on a minor under 15”. An assessor asks him to explain. “I was in a foster family, the guy was abusing me, and the educators didn’t listen to me because I was unruly. So I exposed myself in front of his daughter so that she would file a complaint and they would remove me from this foster family.”he says. The magistrate displays her skepticism, noting that he was convicted of “assault” and not “exhibition.” He maintains his version.
The accused, who is currently being held in the Pontet penitentiary center, near Avignon, must speak about the facts, dating back to the night of August 18 to 19, 2018: like the vast majority of the other accused, he is being prosecuted for “aggravated rape” of Gisèle Pelicot. Like them, he assures that he thought he was coming for a moment of swinging with the couple.
The president asks him why he did not stop when he saw the victim’s inert body. “I was too much in the thick of things to notice that.”justifies the man, who says he smokes several joints a day, and was drunk that evening. “I’m not at all interested in shots where the woman is sleeping, I like to hear the woman scream,” he assures. “But you continue…”underlines an assessor. “In the excitement of it, yes,” retorts the accused, who notably forced the septuagenarian, who was lying down, to perform fellatio on the dining room table by her husband, who had previously drugged her with anxiolytics.
“I feel like you are doing things without thinking, regardless of the fact that it is against the law.”observes Stéphane Babonneau, Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer. “That’s it”, recognizes Fabien S., whom the psychiatrist expert described as “t“very far from the emotional sphere, even when he relates the facts”. “THEThe most damaging traumatic event is that the people who were supposed to take care of him are the ones who attacked him. This increases the risk of becoming a victim or a perpetrator.”he stressed.
“How do you see others?”his lawyer asks him. “I don’t like people”, he answers without hesitation. She invites him to elaborate. “I keep them at a distance, I don’t like to trust,” he adds, his voice trembling. “How do you see the future?”the attorney general asks. “When I get out, I’ll go to my parents’ house, try to get my license, become a truck driver, and I’ll go on the roads. No one will wait for me,” says Fabien S., who faces a sentence of twenty years in prison in this case.