Mazan, the French town that lives in horror the case of the wife drugged by her husband for years so that she could be raped by dozens of strangers

The medieval town of Mazan has still not recovered from the shock.

For several days now, this town in the south-east of France has been on the front pages of the world’s major news media due to the multiple rapes suffered by Gisèle Pelicot.

Her husband, Dominique Pélicot, 71, is accused of drugging and raping her and recruiting dozens of men to sexually abuse her for more than a decade.

Gisèle Pélicot, 72, only found out what had happened to her in 2020, when police showed her images found on her husband’s computer hard drive after he was arrested for taking upskirt photos of women in a supermarket.

The victim testified last week at the trial taking place at the Palais de Justice in Avignon, while in Mazan – the town where the horrors occurred, located just over half an hour by car from the courthouse – opinions are mixed and there are those who try to minimize what happened.

“The truth is that nobody cares about anything here.“It’s a shame,” shopkeeper Evan Tuvignon told the BBC, leaning on the counter of his shop, suggesting people were fed up with the case.

However, several local residents said the town was not only in shock, but the revelations emerging in court were making women wonder who else was involved in the rapes.

The details that have emerged during the investigation are chilling.

Married to Gisèle for 50 years, and the father of her three children (and grandfather of seven grandchildren), Dominique recruited more than 80 men from Mazan and other neighbouring towns since 2011 to rape his wife.

Men of all kinds between 26 and 74 years old They went to the family home to rape Gisèle, who was unconscious due to drugs, while her husband filmed them and took photographs.

According to police, the men were given precise instructions on what to do: leave the car a certain distance from the house so as not to arouse suspicion and wait an hour for the drugs Domique had given Gisèle to take effect.

Once inside, they had to undress in the kitchen and warm their hands with hot water or on the radiator. The use of tobacco and perfume was prohibited. for fear that these fragrances might wake Gisèle.

They did not have to pay to participate, nor did they have to use a condom.

While some raped her once, others are accused of having done so at least six times.

The names of the accused were recently shared on social media and some of them have complained to the court that they, their families and their children are suffering harassment in the streets and at school.

Two local women, who were loading their car on a narrow street in Mazan, said they had seen the names and recognised at least three of them.

“This creates tensions, as you can imagine. You don’t know who to trust “I’m on the street. I feel relieved that I will soon be moving out of this village,” said Océane Martin, 25.

Océane’s mother, Isabelle Livessain, 50, raises another, deeper concern: while the police have already identified and arrested 50 of the men whose images appeared on Dominique Pélicot’s hard drive, another 30 suspects, still unnamed and unlocated, remain at large.

“Therefore, we know that 30 of the 80 have not yet been captured“There are tensions here because people don’t know if they can trust their neighbours. You wonder: is he one of the 30? What is your neighbour doing behind closed doors?” said Isabelle Liveversain, her voice breaking with frustration.

Mazan Mayor Louis Bonnet, 74, tried to downplay the tensions, arguing that most of the alleged rapists came from other villages and trying to portray the Pélicots as outsiders who had not lived there long.

He went even further, saying that threats against the accused and their families were to be expected.

“If they participated in these violations, then it is normal that they are considered targets. There must be transparency about everything that happened,” he said, condemning the defendants and their actions.

In an interview with BBC journalist Andrew Harding, Bonnet spoke about the case itself, and in doing so displayed some attitudes that have already provoked fury in France.

“People here say ‘they didn’t kill anyone’. It would have been much worse if [Pélicot] would have killed his wife. But that did not happen in this case,” Bonnet said.

“It will certainly take her a while to recover,” he said, referring to Gisèle Pelicot, although he suggested that The rapes she suffered were less worrying than those of another victim in the nearby town of Carpentras, who “was conscious when she was raped… and will carry the physical and mental trauma for a long time, which is even more serious.”

“When children are involved or women are murdered, then it is very serious because there is no turning back. In this case, the family will have to rebuild itself. It will be difficult. But they are not dead, so they can still do it.”

When asked by the BBC if he did not consider what had happened to be terrible, the mayor admitted that it was “very serious”.

“But I am not going to say that the people should bear the memory of a crime that goes beyond the limits of what can be considered acceptable,” he added.

Harding tried again: “Many women believed that this case had brought to light particular types of male behavior that needed to change,” she told him.

“We can always wish to change attitudes, and we should do so. But in reality, there is no magic formula. People who acted in this way are impossible to understand and should not be excused or understood. But they still exist,” Bonnet replied.

Inside the Avignon courtroom, some of the defendants — the 18 now in custody — have been watching the proceedings from a special glass-walled section. A white man with shaggy gray hair was stroking his beard. Nearby, a younger black man appeared to be dozing.

Earlier, dozens of his fellow defendants (those not in custody) crowded alongside journalists in a long line outside the courtroom.

Most men tried to hide their faces with masks.but some did not. A burly man shuffled forward on crutches, his legs dragging. One pulled a green hood over his face.

French law offers defendants some protection from being identified in the media, but Gisèle Pélicot rejected her own legal right to privacy, preferring instead to become a symbol of resistance for many French women.

“[Gisèle] has shown such dignity, courage and humanity. It was a great gift for [las mujeres francesas] “It was so hard for her to decide to speak to the whole world in front of her rapist. They said she was devastated, but she was very inspiring,” said Blandine Deverlanges, a local activist who came to the court.

She and her colleagues recently painted slogans on walls in Avignon. One reads: “Ordinary men. Horrible crimes.”

Dominique Pélicot has not yet testified. His defence team said he had suffered medical problems and had to go to hospital.

When he sits on the bench he will have to speak not only in front of his wife, but also in front of their daughter, Caroline, 45 years old.

Caroline was recently shown evidence that Her father had taken photographs of her without her knowledge or permission..

She He thinks he drugged her too. and has become an activist on the issue of rape and drugs, a problem that many experts believe is woefully underreported and under-researched in France.

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