(Avignon) In full confinement, from March to June 2020, Jérôme V. went to Mazan six times to rape Gisèle Pelicot, previously drugged by her husband. Facts that he recognized, but tried to justify on Wednesday by “uncontrollable sexuality”.
“I did not go back because the “rape mode” suited me, but because I could not control my sexuality,” insisted this 46-year-old man, ex-employee, before the Vaucluse criminal court in Avignon. of a convenience store.
Currently detained, like 17 of the 51 accused in this emblematic trial of sexual violence and chemical submission, the forty-year-old is one of the 10 who came several times to the Pelicot home, in Vaucluse. Like him, three came back six times.
But, unlike the fifteen other defendants questioned since September 2, who pleaded “manipulation”, explaining that they believed they were participating in a libertine “sexual game”, Jérôme V. highlighted his “submissive” character. .
“I was unable to assert myself in front of Mr. Pelicot. I don’t know how to say “no” to Mr. Pelicot, and I’m giving up,” explained this great sportsman, as compulsive when it comes to sports – marathons and hikes – as he is to sex.
He therefore renounces resisting Mr. Pelicot’s invitations, but not to rape M.me Pelicot.
89 conquests
“I think over time, because of my addiction, I was less and less careful about what I expected from my partners, which also pushed me to go see transvestites in particular,” continued the accused. , father of two children for whom he has lost parental authority and of another illegitimate child.
“Indeed, you have explored everything in sexual matters,” reacted the president of the court, Roger Arata, recalling that the accused had frequented numerous libertine clubs.
During his few relationships, Jérôme V. admitted to having “tired” quickly and to having gone elsewhere. If he had signed up as a volunteer firefighter, it was because it was “a good excuse to approach women”.
“At one point I needed to count my conquests,” he said, to justify this list of 89 female names found at his home: “It was a challenge.”
However, this does not include the name of Gisèle Pelicot. “I don’t think it’s a conquest,” he said, before detailing his meeting with Dominique Pelicot on the Coco.fr site, since closed by the courts.
“His mode of operation was to throw out photos (of his wife) in the process, to hope that it might cause a reaction, and for a profile like mine, it had one”: “I wanted to get out of I was running away from that, I was hoping he wouldn’t contact me anymore, but I didn’t do anything to make it stop,” he conceded.
“Unassertive” character
“It’s complicated to tell you why I wasn’t able to say “this has to stop”. I was afraid of the impact, that he would distribute the photos,” he added from the dock, under the nonchalant gaze of Dominique Pelicot, who was conscientiously photographing and filming the men raping his wife.
A child victim of “psychological and verbal violence” from his parents, Jérôme V. is “pragmatic and utilitarian in his relationship with others,” personality investigator Elisa Scheidt explained on Monday.
“I have a lot more difficulty than an average person in representing the suffering of others,” said the accused, however assuring that his psychological treatment in prison had “changed” him.
Described as “weak”, “naive”, “not very assertive” and “not very assertive” by psychologist experts, Jérôme V. felt that he had been “under the influence” of Dominique Pelicot.
An argument immediately brushed aside by the lawyer of the principal interested party, Me Béatrice Zavarro, on the basis of the report of an expert psychiatrist: it is an “excuse that you are making to the judge to justify yourself and avoid losing your companion.”
In tears at the bar on Monday, she indicated that she was trying to “understand”: “In terms of human relations, he was particular”, but “he had no reason to look elsewhere”, she insisted. . And she continues to go see him in the visiting room, hoping that their relationship will “restart”.