Brussels - Paris: Europe and Arabs
Chance played a major role in revealing the circumstances of a crime that shook France after a man drugged his wife for years, and then dozens of strangers raped her. They are now all at risk of 20 years in prison. According to what was published by newspapers in the neighboring country Belgium.
Mazan is a municipality located in the south of France in the Vaucluse, a stone's throw from the wonderful Mont Ventoux bike slopes. According to the French newspaper La Liberation.
The reputation of the small town is now in complete disrepair: On Monday, the trial began in Carpentras, which became known as the "Mazan rape" case, which shocked all of France. After the main suspect, Dominique B. (70 years old), drugged his wife Gisèle (72 years old) for years, to whom he had been married for nearly 50 years. He then chose men in the area to rape his unconscious wife. They did not have to pay any money.
The circumstances were revealed by chance in 2021. In a supermarket in E. Leclerc near Mazan, three young women discover that a man is trying to film under their feet. A security officer intervenes, the police take it seriously and search the home of 70-year-old Dominique B., a retired electrician. They find the unimaginable on his computer, including his wife. After all, investigators have found hundreds of videos showing how the drugged woman - completely unconscious due to strong sedatives - is raped by dozens of men over a period of almost 10 years. Her husband films the abuse, takes pictures or shares them. Everything is then carefully archived: one of the videos bears the file name "Abuse, night of September 9, 2020, with Charlie, sixth time".
It is the investigators who inform 72-year-old Gisèle - who has three children with her husband - of years of abuse. The woman and her children have been left "completely devastated", according to her lawyer Stéphane Babonneau. However, she wants to attend every day of the trial – the case is likely to take about four months – and has strongly opposed holding the trial behind closed doors. “She wants to look all rapists in the eye and at the same time wake up society about the abuse of narcotic drugs,” her lawyer said. Photos published by the AFP news agency show the woman had suffered from medical problems for years: memory loss, vaginal injuries, even venereal diseases. But her doctors couldn’t figure out what was going on and suspected early dementia and stress as well. Based on the photos found, investigators eventually identified nearly 100 rapes, almost all in the couple’s bedroom. More than 70 men were involved. Fifty-one of them were identified, ranging in age from 26 to 74. “Ordinary men,” says the woman’s lawyer. “An IT specialist, a truck driver, a firefighter, a soldier, a local journalist.” One of them turned out to be HIV-positive, while the other had relapsed six times. “I thought the woman knew it was a strange act,” one of the identified men told investigators. However, Dominique B.’s interrogations show that this is unlikely: the men involved – recruited on a shady dating site that has now been shut down – are required to leave their car in the area, are not allowed to wear perfume or smoke and must whisper at all times. Before being allowed into the bedroom, they must warm their hands with hot water: “so that cold hands don’t frighten her and wake her up. Everyone knew what they were getting into,” said Dominique B., who has since also been linked to two rapes in the Paris region. All of them risk up to 20 years in prison. The trial is expected to last until the end of December.