France has been shaken to its core this week by the trial of Dominique Pelicot, a former estate agent who in retirement had moved from the Paris area to this southern village, where he is accused of drugging his wife, Gisèle Pelicot, and recruiting men to rape her when she was unconscious in her bedroom over a period of nine years between 2011 and 2020.
A total of 50 men are on trial for alleged rape alongside Pelicot. They are accused of travelling to commit rape at night at the Pelicots' house, which sits tucked away on a deadend lane at the edge of the village.
Aged from 26 to 74, the men include a prison warden, a journalist, a nurse, a fire officer, a soldier, lorry drivers and shop workers. Many lived in the southern department of Vaucluse within a 12-mile drive of Mazan, but some came from further afield.
Pelicot, who admits the drugging and rape, said he had never had any problem recruiting.
Some of the men admit rape but say they had not intended to do it; others deny the charges, saying they believed they were taking part in a game organised by the couple.
Another 30 suspects who could not be identified from videos are thought to be still at large.
"The absolute horror of it," said a retired teacher, 76, who was born in Mazan and taught at the local school. "How could so many people have been involved without anyone knowing it was happening?"
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 21, 2024 من The Guardian.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 21, 2024 من The Guardian.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
'I've lost everything Drought fuels hunger in southern Africa
Emmanuel Himoonga paced his dry field, picking up stalks of maize that had been bleached almost to bone white. The 61-year-old chief of Shakumbila, a mainly agricultural community of about 7,000 people roughly 70 miles west of Zambia's capital, Lusaka, had seen droughts before. But since 2010 they have been happening once every three to four years, instead of every five years.
Chinese ask questions over delayed reports of fatal attack
After a 63-year-old man rammed his car into a sports centre on Tuesday in Zhuhai, killing 35 people and severely injuring 43 others, questions have swirled on Chinese social media about why it took the authorities so long to reveal the details.
South African farms breeding tigers for sale in Asia, says report
The largest tiger farms outside Asia are operating freely in South Africa, facilitating the illegal smuggling of tiger parts, according to a report by the animal welfare charity Four Paws.
Top Unrwa official says plan to shut agency is unrealistic and would add to suffering
Israel's plan to close the UN Palestinian relief agency, Unrwa, within three months is impossible and unrealistic without causing further untold suffering to Palestinians, its director of operations in Gaza has said.
Scholz delivers plea for German unity ahead of confidence Vote
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has defended his decision to oust his finance minister, which has led to the breakup of his government, arguing that to have kept the alliance going would have been at the expense of national stability and international security.
Apple faces near-£3bn lawsuit over cloud storage 'monopoly'
Apple is facing a near-£3bn lawsuit over claims it breached competition law by effectively locking millions of UK customers into its cloud storage service at excessive prices.
Windmill and 15th-century school added to register of at-risk sites
In April 1913, two women broke into the 15th-century Old Grammar School in Kings Norton near Birmingham with the intention of burning it to the ground in a protest for the cause of women's suffrage.
Fayed accuser files claim in US to force brother to give evidence
A woman who claims to have been raped and trafficked while working for Mohamed Al Fayed has filed a legal claim in a US court to oblige his surviving younger brother to give evidence about his alleged knowledge of the crimes.
'Put yourself in my hands' Manet is revealed as world-class mansplainer
Almost 140 years before a term was belatedly coined for the practice of men patronisingly setting women right on how certain things ought to be seen or done, it seems that a certain French painter had already become adept at the art of what must be called Manetsplaining.
Undercover police officer set fire to Debenhams store, public inquiry told
Evidence has emerged to suggest that an undercover police officer set fire to a high street department store while posing as a committed animal rights activist, causing damage worth £340,000, a public inquiry has heard.
