In mid-afternoon, the Pelicot siblings appeared in front of a packed courtroom. Dressed in a black turtleneck and dark suit jacket, David, the couple’s eldest son, stepped forward first. With a military stride, he crossed the corridor formed by the 50 defendants leading to the stand, and placed both hands decisively on the rail. It was then that the fifty-something told the Vaucluse criminal court the story of this “deflagration” which has “annihilated” his family.

First there was that call from his mother on November 2, 2020. The conversation lasted just five minutes. When David hung up, he rushed to the bathroom to regurgitate his dinner. He had just learned the unthinkable: his father had handed his mother over to strangers for years. Caroline, seated on the plaintiff’s bench, listens attentively to her brother. Legs crossed and hands clasped around her knees, she scans the floor.

“We wanted to make him disappear from this house”.

David Pelicot continues. “We get in the car and drive down to…