French mass rape trial: "Let's hope the law gets changed"

CGTN Europe

CGTN Europe interviewed Catherine Guilyardi, French Journalist

Transcript

00:00Well let's talk now to the French journalist Catherine Giliardi who's based in Paris.

00:03Welcome to the program, good to see you. So there are many horrific things about this case,

00:10one of them perhaps that this man was able to get away with this for such a long time

00:14in a very small town. What does this say perhaps about French society?

00:21Oh well, the fact that he got away with it is that there was no hint that there was something

00:29wrong. He was arrested because he was taking photos of women under their skirts in supermarkets

00:38and when the police arrested him this is when they discovered the horrific archives that he

00:45had organized for 10 years of filming his wife being raped by himself and 70 other persons,

00:53only 50, were tried for the last three months and a half in France. So this is how it happened.

01:01Why there was silence is not so much the question but the fact that when it came out

01:10it didn't make much noise in France before the trial opened and Gisèle Pellicot decided

01:18waive her right to anonymity. I remember this, I think it was a BBC interview

01:26with the mayor of Maison, this little town in the south of France where it all happened,

01:31who said oh well you know nobody died, doesn't really matter, sorry.

01:36No, carry on, please carry on. Yes, so he eventually apologized realizing that

01:44it was terrible to say that and also a lawyer who said oh well you know there are rape and rape,

01:53meaning you have those who have the intention of raping and those who don't have the intention

01:57of raping and really the question, the big question here in France was this debate about

02:06the intention of raping. The problem is that the French law doesn't leave that open for lawyers

02:18and defendants say oh no you know I didn't know what was going on, I thought it was a swinger

02:24game and this was a manipulative husband, I thought she knew what was happening etc. So

02:31the the problem for the victims is hearing those things again and again.

02:37Sorry to jump in, I mean this is a case that's really made headlines around the world isn't it,

02:41but do you think anything will actually now change as a result of it?

02:47So the the intention of raping is definitely here something that actually could be trained

02:55in the law. Today it's very simple in France the penal code says any act of sexual penetration

03:03is a rape of any kind or any oral genital act committed on the person by violence,

03:09coercition, threat or surprise. The problem is the lack of definition of threat or surprise

03:15and this is why there was all this debate in the courtroom. So we need something more specific.

03:20The other thing that was debated in France is the notion of consent. So is it only French? I

03:26don't know I don't think so but it is definitely something in France that is that needed to be

03:32discussed and this trial has not only started the discussion but made sure that we don't drop it

03:39anymore. The fact that the law it has to be enshrined in the law the fact that you need

03:47an explicit consent in a sexual relationship. Very few countries in the world have put that

03:56and in France it's only since 2021 that for minors no adult can avail himself or herself of the

04:05sexual consent of someone under 15 and 18 if it's in the case of an incest. I wonder though if it

04:13will perhaps change anything at all in society it's something that Giselle Pellicot herself

04:18called a macho patriarchal society. Do you think this will be a catalyst for some kind of change?

04:26Yes she said that at the beginning in September but it struck me how today she said

04:33that she hopes that what she has gone through will create a better relationship between men and women

04:43and I think she was also surprised to have this support of lots of women who applauded her

04:51when she came in and out of the court but also of men and that the fact she lifted her anonymity

05:00has made it easier for the conversation to happen and let's hope we're going towards that changing

05:08the law and make it easier to have more sexual consensual relationship in this country as in

05:18others between men and women between same-sex people as well. Catherine great to talk to you

05:23thank you very much for coming on the program that's the French journalist Catherine Giliardi.

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