Demonstrators in Paris supported assault victim Gisele Pelicot at a gathering Sept. 14.
Michel Euler/AP/AP
Among those he had over was Mahdi D., who testified that when he left home on the night of Oct. 5, 2018, he didn’t intend to rape anyone.
“I thought she was asleep,” the 36-year-old transportation worker told the panel of five judges, referring to Gisèle Pelicot, who has attended nearly every day of the trial and has become a hero to many sexual-abuse victims for insisting that it be public.
“I grant you that you did not leave with the intention of raping anyone,” the prosecutor told him. “But there in the room, it was you.”
Like a few of the other men accused of raping Pelicot between 2011 and 2020, Mahdi D. acknowledged almost all of the facts presented against him. And he expressed remorse, telling the judges, “She is a victim. We can’t imagine what she went through. She was destroyed.”
Mais il refusait de qualifier les faits de viol, même s’il reconnaissait que cela pourrait lui valoir une peine plus légère. Suite à cela, le procureur a demandé au tribunal de visionner les vidéos explicites de la visite de Mahdi D. au domicile des Pelicot.
