“It’s terrible what happened to that woman.”
The annual Christmas market in the central square of Mazan may be where life seems normal, but a dark cloud looms over this small French town.
In Mazan, Dominique Bellicot, by his personal confession before the court, invited dozens of men whom he recruited via the Internet to his home to rape his wife, Giselle Bellicot, after he drugged her. The total number of defendants is fifty-one.
The trial in nearby Avignon was postponed on Monday ahead of the verdicts expected later this week. Since the hearings began in early September, they have captivated the nation and even the world.
That’s partly because of the sordid details, but largely because Giselle Bellicot, 71, waived her right to anonymity and put a name and face on the victim, a decision rarely seen.
“We are impatiently awaiting the verdicts,” Yannick Richard, 52, said from his booth. The retiree sells stuffed animals and sweaters at the market.
“We really have to mark this occasion. We can’t just let it pass by in small sentences.”
Gisele Bellico has become an icon for those fighting against sexual violence due to her testimony about the horrific events in which she was knocked unconscious by her ex-husband, who invited strangers into their home to rape her, between 2011 and 2020.
“When she made the decision to open the trial to the public, she did so because she felt it was necessary for the public to understand what happened to her. She never did it because she wanted attention,” said Stefan Babonneau, Bellico’s lawyer. The trial was postponed.
But in Mazan, few want to talk about this issue. Most citizens in the town, which has a population of about 6,000, are fed up with their anger that their home has become synonymous with rape.
Those speaking try to stay away from details, and instead highlight the beauty of their village.
“I find it appalling”
Singer Pauline De Peretti (58 years old) said, “As a resident of Mazanese, I do not have much of an opinion on this case. What happened to that woman is very tragic. As a woman, I find it horrific.” He has lived in the village for 18 years.
“The rapist of Mazan? No, no, no. It is the story of Madame Bellicote and the Bellicote family. I would really like to invite you to visit our village. The people are charming.”
However, Di Peretti can only give his opinion.
“It’s Madame Bellicot, but the lady could be anyone. You or I. We don’t know.”
House of horrors
The first thing you’ll notice about the house at the heart of France’s worst-ever rape case are the blue curtains. Blue shutters on a cream-colored one-story house with a terracotta roof.
An ordinary house where everything extraordinary happens inside.
There, just a 10-minute walk from the main square, Dominique Bellicot says he would invite men to come and rape his wife, while he was shooting the movie.
He pleaded guilty, and explained in his testimony that he would ask the men to park their cars in a parking lot near a sports field, so as not to arouse suspicion.
Then, under cover of darkness, they walk the 100 meters or so to the house on a dead-end street.
“The bad reputation of the village, such a wonderful little village, is ruined by this kind of people, this kind of attitude,” said Christian Lhermitte, who has lived in Mazan for just the past five months.
“I believe justice will be served.”
His wife Hugues Lhermitte interrupted him.
“I don’t think the sanctions will be tough enough, that’s for sure.”
One by one, all but one of the defendants stepped to the microphone to speak Monday. Dominique Bellicot, 72, was in first place. His voice was weak and halting.
“A tribute to my ex-wife’s courage.”
In his final statement to the court, he said that “I would like to begin by paying tribute to the courage of my ex-wife” and asked for forgiveness from his family.
Most of the other men simply said, “I have nothing to add.”
A few declared their innocence – which received audible jeers from audience members watching from the extended room where the courtroom was projected on television.
As she exited the courtroom with Babono, Giselle Bellico was greeted with applause and stopped to speak to a few of the women who support her.
Babono said every community struggles with questions about rape, adding that his client “really wanted everyone to understand that there is no such thing as one rape, one type of rape, and one type of rapist.”
“Everyone has loved Dominique Bellicault for years. He was a beloved father, a beloved husband, a beloved grandfather, a colleague, and remains probably one of the worst sex criminals of the last 50 years in France,” he said.
Babonneau said the trial highlighted a global message that consent is required before a sexual act – and that French criminal law defines rape as the act of sexual penetration of a person using violence, coercion, threat “or what we call surprise.”
He said that although the word consent does not appear in the law, Giselle Belico was unconscious while being sexually assaulted, “so the rape was committed by surprise.”
Last month, prosecutors asked a panel of judges to impose a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison for aggravated rape against Dominique Bellicot, and sentences of 10 to 18 years for other defendants facing the same charge, if found guilty.
The presiding judge told the court on Monday that rulings would be issued on Thursday, but could be postponed until Friday morning.
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