Mass rape trial revives question of consent within French law
The trial of dozens of men accused of raping a woman while she was drugged into unconsciousness by her husband has provoked horror in France. Beyond outrage, legal experts say the case exposes the need to revise the French penal code to place consent at the heart of what constitutes a sex crime.
Police say the videos leave little uncertainty over the events.
As investigators have told the Avignon criminal court, they uncovered dozens of clips showing men penetrating a woman who lies apparently unconscious, sometimes snoring.
That woman is Gisèle Pélicot and the man accused of drugging her, inviting strangers to their home and filming the images is her ex-husband, Dominique Pélicot.
While he says his acts make him a rapist, the 50 other men on trial with him don't necessarily see themselves the same way.
Defence lawyers have argued that their clients were unaware that Gisèle Pélicot had not given her consent beforehand, nor did they have the obligation to seek it directly.
"This is not American law. In France, you don't need to have obtained the victim's consent necessarily to ensure that it's not rape," Guillaume de Palma, who represents several of the defendants, told reporters last week.
Earlier the same day, he had caused outcry in the courtroom when he remarked: "There's rape and there's rape, and without intent to commit it, it's not rape."
Law out of date?
However objectionable that might sound, legal experts point out that France's current laws leave room for such arguments.
Yet in the six months since, no reforms have followed.
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