Marion Dubreuil’s Tweets from the courthouse translated by computer software from French to English
Be aware the translations are not the best with frequently confusing pronouns
54th day of hearings in the so-called #viols of #Mazan trial (13th week) in Avignon where 51 defendants appear.
The defence's pleadings will continue before the Vaucluse departmental criminal court until 13 December inclusive
@RMCInfo
Patrick A. has just been excused from the hearing for medical reasons until Monday, December 16 for the last words of the defendants
It is now Mr. Bruschi who pleads for Joseph C. "Unimaginable facts, we see in the conditions of the live the material facts of rape. And then the actors in this case, 3 in number, Dominique Pelicot, the 49 other defendants and Gisèle Pelicot."
"I called him 'Mazan's ogre' because he is insatiable. I don't believe at all in arrest by security guard like in the United States the suicide by cop. Bruschi pleads, brushing aside the hypothesis that Pelicot did everything to be arrested on 2/09/2020
"We are in the midst of social misery, I don't understand why the attorneys general prefer to believe the ogre of mazan rather than the little fish. I think that the public prosecutor thought he had the grail of free will," continues Mr. Bruschi
"Free will is not a monolith where you have it or you don't have it. There is a total gap between Mazan's ogre and the small fish. I was moved by their story and their sincerity. These slices of life are incredible. »
Mr. Bruschi quotes Mr. Lantelme as "the paraphilic bomb and the bubbles of fragility. He's a guru, there's almost a sectarian relationship. He is the guru who leaves his mark on the little fish, he exercises his hold if not he acts like a foreman, he is the master of the game."
"She has known dozens of closed doors in the marital chamber, Gisèle Pelicot wanted a public hearing, obviously we must salute her courage," continues Mr. Bruschi, who attacks the indictment
"The knitters only wait for the requisitions to fall on the little fish like the guillotine on the revolutionary heads," continues Joseph C.'s lawyer.
"The famous knitters, whether they go to Iran, Yemen, Afghanistan... Mr. Bruschi continues on the same line as the lawyers who pleaded before him.
"The sexual coercive relations of man over woman do not exist in all our ape ancestors. Mr. Bruschi wants to rewrite the history of the culture of the domination of men over women, he starts from the Neolithic before going through Bonaparte's civil code
Mr. Bruschi now evokes "a chemical cause, testosterone is not to excuse them but to find explanations" assures Joseph C.'s lawyer. Before saying that violence against women is a scourge like violence against children.
"Women are in danger from evening to morning, from morning to night. At home, when she goes out, she goes to work on public transport. Yes, there is an urgent need to act. What are the solutions? The far-fetched solutions: I'll tell you about them »
Mr. Bruschi talks about an experiment of a GPS vest on children to see the distribution of space in the schoolyard in Strasbourg between girls and boys.
We feminize everything "the 3 musketeers were boys? A film will be released in 2025 all for one"
"Repression is not a good idea, there is education. Be careful, not the gender theory, but in primary school, co-educate with parents. Learn the value of self-respect from others, especially women. If we tell them this for 10 years, it will be obvious."
"Respect for Joseph C. It's a value he has in him. We made fun of his witnesses, 3 policemen, karatekas, who came to say that he had the respect of others, with his face uncovered, they sincerely believe it. Bruschi continues
"Joseph C. had the project of a libertine adventure, he took a condom and a pill for the libido, he arrived at the same time as another defendant, Roman V. But they didn't know each other"
"Joseph C assures that he did not know that she was drugged, you have no text message, no message that would tend to show that he was aware of her state of sedation, no message of instruction either," continues Mr. Bruschi
"Joseph C, he was in the tunnel of the scenario, article 121-3 paragraph 1 of the penal code, no crime and offence without intent to commit it, there is no mental element, the mental element is not in relation to the victim but in relation to the alleged perpetrator that it is assessed"
The famous article 121-3 of the penal code at the heart of the plea of acquittal of Mr. Bruschi
legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/article_...
"If you were to enter the process of sentencing, you should never send him to prison, a firm sentence that would cover pre-trial detention (8 months). I ask you to acquit, the doubt benefits the accused. I think he was reckless. »
It is now up to Paul-Roger Gontard to plead for Cyrille D: "I did not expect this judgment to become the trial of fundamental principles, presumption of innocence, human dignity, rights of the Defence"
"When we dared to defend, debate, question. I did not expect this trial to become a trial of two kinds, pointing the finger at men with a small h, all presumed guilty in an alleged rape culture," continues Mr. Gontard
"I realize that this trial is far too big for Mr. D. My word goes beyond his cause alone because it is a bit like the trial of justice that has been made here"
"This case has become the unintentional weaving of a bad weaving. I plead to spare you from having to unravel the unjust and excessive in which the civil party and the public prosecutor have tried to lock you up."
"Allow me to summon those who have succeeded one another over the past two centuries, those who have assisted the accused who have already been convicted"
"It's not a single case, so many individuals have been bundled together in a single bundle by Dominique Pelicot. A case linked by a lack of resources from the justice system as well. They are the cards collected without them knowing it."
"This simplification, essentialization of the M/F trial has joined external debates. It is a tyranny, a justice that we are trying to instrumentalize, it is a bulwark of democracy that is under attack. We must distinguish between the people and the crowd"
Mr. Gontard now quotes Victor Hugo: "Will this historic trial rise to the level of history? It is not because of the means that the justice system has put in place for this court. »
"Don't be satisfied with these requests," urges Gontard, who deplores the fact that the public prosecutor did not take the debates into account. In the absence of popular jurors at your side, the doors of the courtroom were pushed hard because there was no representative of the people here."
"Then the most sincere, the most reasonable came to try to understand. The curious, the onlookers attracted by the unexpected, no doubt projecting a little of themselves. So we monstratified, we screamed, we spit. »
"If they look so much like us when they have committed the unspeakable, we must keep them at a distance." Mr. Gontard now denounces voyeurs, "looking a rape in the face does not deter rapists. One of the paraphilias of the latter designating Dominique Pelicot was voyeurism"
"This crowd demanded that shame change sides, demanding the pillory. A pillory that is already digital, erasing what has been published is impossible while justice requires a right to rehabilitation"
"In a trial like this, we are asking for revenge and it is no longer justice," continues Gontard. We condemn the accused in advance, we see the banners blooming for 20 years for each. So why are we here? »
"We are at a moment of justice where we are moving away from the point of view of the perpetrator, it is dangerous to go towards the sole subjectivity of the victim to understand what happened. Our justice, if it takes this road, will be transactional."
"In our law, rape is a voluntary offence. I wouldn't want a society in which we would make love by cerfa, argues Gontard against the inclusion of consent in the law. »
"I am still hungry after 3 months and mid-hearing how a small village in Provence has gathered so many men who have paraded in the Pelicots' bedroom. Is there a local tropism? Because the Marquis de Sade had a holiday resort? »
"There is the translation of what he and he alone was able to organize in Mazan. Explains Me Gontard, pointing to Dominique Pelicot. Without this, there will be so many others. I do not think we are discovering any new Pellicot cases. »
Mr. Gontard now comes to his client: "I am pleading for a man, a word that has almost become filthy. A man who lived such a significant youth. An alcoholic father who was the author of physical and moral violence. He was hitting.
"He had no help from motherly love. kicking in the head, hitting a chair, standing with burnt fingers, kneeling on gravel. Always in shorts even in winter, rejected. This man has nevertheless managed to structure a personality. »
"A personality that opened up - as is often the case - thanks to a wife. A wife who continued to visit him in prison to help him and try to understand"
"to understand how this man with no history, praised by all those around him, finds himself in this room of Mazan once again because he is there, he points the finger at Dominique Pelicot, he knew how to reassure him, manipulate him"
Mr. Gontard now pleads, without naming them, cognitive biases: "our brain tends to fill in holes when it does not know"
"How could he imagine that what took place in Mazan exists. What he did does not correspond to Dominique Pelicot's schemes, the approach begins on coco for him no text messages. We exchange phones. At the beginning Cyrille L. went on coco to talk about himself"
"And he finds someone reassuring on the other side who presents "couple for man", it's a libertine proposal, he was in pink, the approach of a lady or a couple, it comes to reassure him. We're going to offer him a libertine game, a couple's fantasy."
Gontard assures that the use of "we", "we", reassures him: he has received photos of her asleep, waking up, eyes open, smiling. We asked him for photos of him too "to see if he would please the lady" that's also the trap"
"We tell her that she will take a pill to relax. He could have said she'll take a chamomile to relax"
The hearing resumes at 2 p.m. with the pleadings of Mr. Minier for three defendants who admit the facts.
Resumption of the hearing with Mr. Minier "what would be the interest, what is the added value to bring to magistrates who are often in a hurry. A pleading is a speech that you will have to have in mind when you leave to deliberate."
"The youngest of the lawyers" explains that the prosecution let itself be "lulled by the sweet song of the sirens who await us outside the palace with a knife between their teeth"
"The presumption of innocence requires proof of guilt and the public prosecutor's office then has the role of explaining the sentence. I have not heard any demonstration of guilt in the case of Saifeddine G.," continues Mr. Minier
He is now tackling the individualization of sentences: "I did not hear you speak of this child whom you tore from the arms of his father Paul G. I also did not hear you take into account Abdelali D.'s state of health."
"Your requests were aimed at fulfilling only one objective: punishment," continues Mr. Minier
"The choice of sentence is not only made according to the seriousness of the offence, it is also and above all, with all due respect to some, according to the personality of the accused"
Mr. Minier assures that for Saifeddine G. The offence of aggravated rape is not characterized, in police custody he admits to having tried to penetrate Gisèle Pelicot but during interrogation during the investigation he will be asked if he makes the difference between attempting and pretending
"If Mr. G. had appeared alone, you would have given him the chance to come out free," pleaded Mr. Minier
Mr. Minier now pleads for Paul G. "Your acknowledgement of the facts was not taken into account"
"In this case, 8 years and 6 months separate us from this crime," continues Mr. Minier. Proof by practice that Mr. Paul G. is not a danger to society, Mr. works perfectly integrated. The 10 years requested by the public prosecutor will only serve to punish him."
Mr. Minier is now pleading for Abdelali D., whose state of health is incompatible with the conditions of detention subject to daily care
Less than an hour of pleadings for his three clients. Mr. Minier has finished his argument. The hearing is therefore suspended and resumed tomorrow at 9 a.m@RMCInfo
@RMCInfo New collage about the pleadings of the defense on the walls of Avignon
Some links to new news articles about the case
Unmasked: The defiant doctor who prescribed fistfuls of sedatives to the French husband at heart of world's most shocking rape trial... and this is what he has to say for himself
By DAVID JONES
Published: 01:55, 2 December 2024 | Updated: 12:56, 2 December 202Dawn breaks mistily over Mazan and in a cobbled square three patients huddle outside a GP's surgery. As the church bells clang, the man they have come to see steps jauntily out of his black Vauxhall Zafira.
Balding, late-middle-aged, with a leather bag slung over the shoulder of his anorak, he could be any small-town French doctor arriving for his early morning consultations.
He has not been seen in the sensational court case fast-reaching its denouement in Avignon, 40 miles south-west of here, nor will he be called as a witness in the rape trial of the century.
Nor has Dr Daniel Turturica been interviewed by investigators, for when police raided the hilltop surgery that he shares with his wife and seized the medical files of the chief defendant, Dominique Pelicot, he maintained his silence, citing patient confidentiality.
Indeed, until I tracked down the Romanian-born GP and spoke to him last week, he had managed to remain faceless and anonymous. Yet the 369-page file presented to the court by the investigating magistrate reveals him to be an integral figure in the case.
For it was this local doctor whom Pelicot – feigning chronic insomnia – duped into prescribing the tranquilisers that he used to render his wife, Gisele, unconscious, so that strangers could sneak into their house and rape her.
In truth, Pelicot suffered from sleep apnoea, a condition that would have made it dangerous for him to take the sedatives he secretly fed to her: zolpidem and lorazepam, an anti-anxiety drug branded Temesta in France.
However, he kept this from Dr Turturica and for years deceived the doctor into prescribing him hundreds of these benzodiazepines, which he stockpiled and crushed into Gisele's evening meals. Thereafter she slid into unconsciousness and her husband welcomed strangers into her bedroom to rape her.
David Jones talks to Dr Daniel Turturica outside his surgery in the town of Mazan
David Jones tracked down the Romanian-born GP and spoke to him last week
So these powerful pills served as Pelicot's evil elixir: as vital, in his chosen form of chemically induced rape, as a knife is to the brutal sex attacker who sets upon his victim in some darkened back-alley.
Without obtaining them freely, in huge quantities, he could not have sent Gisele into such a deep coma that he was able to carry her to bed, remove her nightclothes and garb her in lingerie for the rapists' twisted pleasure, all without her knowing.
Without these pills she would surely have woken up as the men who violated her – 50 of whom are now on trial – treated her like a rag doll. She was so deeply asleep when one man attacked her that he thought she might be dead.
Pelicot has also admitted giving some of the drugs to three of the rapists so that they could abuse their partners in the same way.
It follows, then, that the doctor who prescribed this despicable man with the most crucial weapon in his armoury sits at the heart of this grim story, unwitting as his role may have been.
Had Pelicot been on trial in Britain, the court might well have decided to overrule Dr Turturica's right to medical confidentiality, given the gravity of the charges.
His professional body might also have required him to account for his actions – for in parts of the court file it is claimed that this doctor acted unlawfully in prescribing zolpidem for so long by way of a repeat prescription.
This 'Z-family' sleeping pill is highly addictive and the French medical authorities state that it should only be dispensed for 28 days without a fresh consultation.
But on March 3, 2020, investigators allege, Dr Turturica signed off three boxes of the drug to Pelicot, and his prescription was renewable three times, which 'was not legally possible', investigators claim. They also allegedly found proof that the doctor wrote Pelicot scripts for at least 780 Temesta pills, at the maximum strength of 2.5mg, but they have extrapolated that he might have received as many as 1,520 of these tablets.
Dr Turturica issued the first prescription on October 8, 2013, just six months after the Pelicots – then in their early-60s – moved from the Paris region to their retirement chalet in Mazan.
He handed out Pelicot's final prescription on October 28, 2020, six weeks after he was arrested for taking mobile phone photos up women's skirts in a grocery shop, prompting the investigation that revealed him to have been drugging and filming his wife being raped.
Dominique Pelicot used tranquilisers to render his wife, Gisele, unconscious, so that strangers could sneak into their house and rape her
Gisele Pelicot was the victim of her husband's crimes for years - he would stockpile the tranquilisers and crush them into Gisele's evening meals
Additionally, Dr Turturica was found to have given Pelicot 193 Viagra pills at a strength of 100mg – five times the recommended dose. As we now know, he used these to boost his libido before joining in the attacks.
Investigators say that Pelicot's medical records did not explain why these drugs were dispensed.
When questioned, he told them Temesta had been recommended to him as a strong and reliable sedative by a nurse, whom he met in one of the perverted chatrooms where he recruited men to abuse Gisele.
Toxicology tests using strands of his hair established that he hadn't taken the sleeping drugs himself. However, when samples of Gisele's hair were analysed, she was found to have ingested them in dangerously high doses.
When Pelicot was interviewed by investigators for the first time, he admitted to crushing ten Temesta tablets into her food before the rapes were perpetrated: a dose of 25mg.
Experts from France's National Institute of Scientific Police (INPS) say this 'massive intake' could have proved fatal.
Mindful, perhaps, that his admission had laid him open to even more serious charges, Pelicot subsequently revised his story, claiming he had drugged Gisele with only three Temesta tablets at a time. He therefore felt he 'had not put her life at risk'.
Whatever the truth, it might have assisted the court to learn more about his acquisition and use of these drugs – some of which were found hidden in one of his walking boots in the garage – from the man who prescribed them.
As this landmark trial is awakening France to the spiralling prevalence of chemical rape, and prescription drugs are being used in many of these attacks, Dr Turturica's testimony could also have been in the public interest.
Instead, we are left with the brief exclusive interview he allowed me last week, when I approached him at his surgery.
The clear purpose of this was to exonerate himself. In the immortal words of French songstress Edith Piaf: 'Je ne regrette rien.' 'Yes, M. Pelicot was my patient and came to my surgery for his problem [insomnia] but for such a request we don't have the possibility to check whether it's genuine,' he said, his Romanian accent still heavy after 30 years in Mazan.
'If someone comes and says they have a sore throat, how can I know whether that's true? If someone asks for sleeping pills, I can't verify whether he has insomnia or not.
'I'm obliged to prescribe medication in the doses recommended. Insomnia is generally chronic and can last for many years. The prescriptions were within the valid limits. Zolpidem is not limited in time. No, no! It's not illegal.'
He paused and shrugged. 'Anyway, if I don't prescribe [these drugs] he just gets them from a psychiatrist or someone else. It might be a case in a million – or 30 million – where someone uses medicine for this purpose. It's unique.'
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The Pelicots' home in the village of Mazan in France. It has been branded a 'house of horrors'
While Dr Turturica has not appeared in court, among Mazan's 4,000 residents – who are served by only three family doctors – his involvement in the case is well known.
How, then, do locals in this insular little town regard him? Kindly and respectfully, he assures me, nonchalantly remarking that some of the people who attend his surgery have relatives among the 50 accused rapists.
Dr Turturica's online 36 patient reviews are decidedly mixed and his rating is only 2.5 stars out of five, below those of Mazan's other two doctors, one of whom gets top marks. 'Makes you wait for an hour to tell you in 30 seconds that he can't help you,' writes one patient, Salome Richaud, who consulted the doctor when suffering depression because she couldn't conceive.
Now recovered and the mother of a baby boy, Ms Richaud, 24, tells me the doctor suggested she should 'adopt an animal' to ease her suffering. She refused to pay his fee.
However, an anonymous new patient praises Dr Turturica as an 'old school doctor' who 'takes the time to listen'. Another says that while he can 'seem a little cold at first' he has always been 'a big help'.
Whatever his pluses and minuses, he certainly proved very helpful to Dominique Pelicot.
Before he hurried away, I asked him whether he thought it strange that a self-proclaimed insomniac in his mid-60s had also requested fistfuls of super-strength Viagra.
With a disquieting grin he replied: 'Excuse me, it's not necessary to have sex at night. It's possible during the day.'
As Pelicot's lawyer, Beatrice Zavarro, told me during a court recess on Thursday, in French law Dr Turturica's right to silence prevented the parties in this case 'going after him'.
But in any case, she would not have done so, because it would not have helped her case.
Mme Zavarro lays no blame at the doctor's door. 'It's not a question of irresponsibility,' she said. 'These drugs were not compatible with Dominique Pelicot's sleep apnoea.
'He [Dr Turturica] didn't realise that – and he didn't try to find out. But a doctor can't guess if a patient doesn't tell them.'
The prosecution file states that, under questioning by investigators, Pelicot 'affirmed that the doctor had not been his accomplice'.
Nobody has suggested such a thing. Nonetheless, the ease with which he was deceived concerns Dr Bernard Arbomont, president of the Vaucluse department Ordre des Medecins, the body that oversees the department's doctors.
'I did ask myself the question as to how this gentleman procured the medicine,' he told the Mail, affirming that under French guidelines zolpidem should only be prescribed for four weeks without the patient being re-examined.
But he said the task of monitoring doctors for possible over-prescribing fell to CPAM, the social security organisation that manages French health expenses, and in Pelicot's case it appeared not to have been flagged up.
'This is not a frequent occurrence – but I think that unfortunately it was not an isolated case,' Dr Arbomont said worryingly, adding that where doctors were reported to his organisation they would be called to account.
Among close observers of the trial, there are those who believe that ought to have happened here. 'I don't know how Pelicot got past the doctor, the pharmacist, the whole chain. It's incomprehensible,' said an 80-year-old woman named Aline, who regularly sits in the court overflow room with dozens of onlookers, including sexual abuse victims and campaigners.
'Normally this type of medical professional is very vigilant. I think this aspect of the case should be investigated.'
Assuming Dr Turturica's records are accurate, Madame Pelicot attended his surgery just once during her seven years in Mazan, after injuring her ankle.
Given that her body and mind were slowly being destroyed by her husband's pills, we might wonder why she didn't consult him more often.
Perhaps she simply preferred to see a different doctor, but as the abuse wore on and her condition worsened, she was referred to specialists. Totally losing her memory for protracted periods, descending into robotic trances when dining with friends, afraid to drive or even catch a train unaccompanied, she feared she was suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
She lost more than two stone, felt anxious and perpetually exhausted, and was inexplicably diagnosed with four sexually transmitted diseases.
By late October 2020, when a sharp-eyed security guard spotted Pelicot pointing his phone up the skirts of female shoppers, her health was in tatters.
As we have seen these past three months, Gisele Pelicot is possessed of enormous courage and strength. But who knows how long she would have survived had her plausible husband continued to dupe his doubtless well-meaning, but seemingly gullible, doctor?
ITN Productions preps Gisèle Pelicot rape trial docBy Heather Fallon28 November 2024
Film for Channel 5 to feature exclusive interview with alleged rapistVariety - Nov 28, 2024 9:10am PT
Gisèle Pelicot’s Daughter, Caroline Darian, to Chronicle Mass Rape Trial Involving Her Parents in France Televisions Documentary (EXCLUSIVE)
In “Chemical Submission, May Shame Change Camp,” Darian explores the rise of drug-facilitated rapes like the ones her mother endured for over 10 years
https://variety.com/2024/tv/global/gisele-pelicot-daughter-mass-rape-trial-france-televisions-doc-1236225898/
