“The fact that Dominique Pelicot can explain himself does not exonerate him,” says feminist lawyer Michelle Dayan.

Lawyer Michelle Dayan was invited on franceinfo on Tuesday, after Dominique Pelicot spoke for the first time before the Vaucluse criminal court.

“Talking, explaining, is not exonerating oneself, it is called a rule of law”, declared, Tuesday, September 17 on franceinfo, the feminist lawyer Michelle Dayan, president of Lawyers for Women, an association of lawyers fighting against violence against women, after Dominique Pelicot spoke for the first time before the criminal court of Vaucluse since the start of the trial of the Mazan rapes.

After asking “pardon” to his ex-wife Gisèle Pelicot, and having admitted to being “a rapist”, The accused spoke of his youth, which he described as “difficult”, marked by parents “who were violent among themselves” speaking quickly about two episodes “traumatic”a rape he allegedly suffered at the age of 9 and another he allegedly was forced to carry out on a construction site while he was working there as an apprentice.

“A trial at assizes is first and foremost the trial of the accused. He has the right, despite what some people may say, to explain himself.”said lawyer Michelle Dayan, denouncing in particular “all the people who are screaming and saying that he doesn’t have to explain himself”. “I understand that the emotion is strong, but explaining, for an accused, is not necessarily exonerating oneself or absolving oneself of responsibility. It is important that the accused can defend himself and explain himself, otherwise we fall into a dictatorship and there is no longer any rule of law”.

“Either we decide that the accused cannot explain himself, and cannot give his own explanations, and there is no longer any form of trial, and we fall into dictatorship or popular vengeance”she continued. “Or we decide, and this also has an educational value, that everything concerning him, and in particular having suffered rape in childhood or having witnessed rape in childhood, is something that the assize court must take into consideration.”

“That the victims feel it in an extremely violent way is obviously normal,” she added, however. “On the other hand, it is also interesting that this trial is not being held behind closed doors, because it allows us to understand that rape culture, this violence, can also originate in childhood.”