“I feel really bad for him and his family because he was a really nice man,” he recalls, serving coffee behind the bar.
“He was a family man, a Monsieur Tout-le-Monde,” said Mr. Flegon, using a French expression meaning “Mr. Everybody” or “the average Joe.”
It has become the disturbing buzzword in the mass rape trial unfolding in Avignon, southern France, against a husband accused of repeatedly drugging his wife into unconsciousness and recruiting dozens of “ordinary” men to abuse her while she lay in a coma and he filmed it.
Delville, a 54-year-old construction worker from the state, father of two adult children and partner of 32 years, has no criminal record, like many of the other suspects.
His wife told police the couple had a “completely normal sex life” and made love “two or three times a week,” sometimes using a sex toy, but nothing more than that. He had had a few mistresses and was an occasional porn watcher.
“Monsieur Tout-le-Monde” suits him well. Yet Delville and 50 other men each risk 20 years in prison for the rape of Gisèle Pélicot, 72.
Ms Pelicot has become a figurehead for women after she waived her right to anonymity, allowing her to bring her attackers to justice and raise awareness about ‘chemical enslavement’ – the drugging of victims to commit sexual abuse.
Like two other suspects, Delville was a regular at Mr Flegon’s bar-brasserie, Le Siècle. The restaurant is the social heart of Mazan, the small village in Provence that has become famous as the former home of Dominique Pelicot, the 71-year-old pensioner at the centre of the trial.
“Unfortunately, he now has to answer for his actions,” the bar owner said, shaking his head in a pronounced Southern accent.
Since the trial began three weeks ago, Ms Pélicot has courageously called on the accused – some 35 of whom deny rape – to admit that the sedation had turned her into a “rag doll, a garbage bag”, and she had made it clear that this was not a game of debauchery to which she had given her consent.
“Rape is rape,” she told a lawyer who “humiliated” her by insinuating that her clients might have been fooled into thinking she was a willing party.
“For once in your life, take responsibility for your actions,” she told the men, who represent a cross-section of society, including a journalist, a furniture maker, a prison guard, a firefighter and a nurse.
Video evidence
A film from September 2019 was found in Mrs Pélicot’s computer files showing Delville having sex with Mrs Pélicot in a dark T-shirt and black socks.
Delville also admitted to filming Pélicot abusing his comatose wife, despite her snoring. In the film, the two men whisper. When Mrs. Pelicot wakes up in her stupor, the husband tells Delville to leave the bedroom.
When Delville was first questioned by police, he said he had come across Pélicot on a swingers website and had been sent photos of Pélicot’s naked wife with other men. Mrs Pélicot has since confirmed that it is not her in the photos.
Delville claimed he had no idea that Mrs Pélicot had been drugged without her knowledge. He denied rape and said he had “no doubt” that she had “consented”.
But when Delville was shown the graphic videos, he admitted that he knew that Mrs. Pélicot knew nothing about it. He said: ‘I did what I wanted.’ [her husband] searched, I don’t know why. I couldn’t stop. I was closed off.”
On Friday, he told the court he had a tyrannical alcoholic father nicknamed Hitler, who forced him to lie naked in the snow because he wet the bed. He was placed in foster care.
His relationship with women? “I have always respected my wife and her decisions. She was not part of me: if she did not want something, I respected it.”
“He has never made any inappropriate gestures toward me or any of my friends,” his daughter said. “He is respectful, helpful and hardworking. We have a close bond. He has taught me the values of life.”
The prosecutor pointed out that eight months after his arrest, Delville told the investigating judge: “I did not have Madame Pelicot’s permission. I am guilty of rape.”
“Can we assume that this position should be retained permanently?” the public prosecutor asked.
“Yes. Sorry, I was naive, stupid, an ass,” said Delville.
Outwardly inconspicuous
Two other suspects have been questioned about the rape allegation against Mrs. Pélicot. Both appear to be inconspicuous, at least externally.
Lionel Rodriguez, a 44-year-old former supermarket worker and father of three, described by friends as “upstanding and honest, a loving husband and father”. He said he mistakenly thought he was taking part in a debauched “game” and did not think it was abuse – but then he noticed “something was wrong”.
Mr Pélicot sent him photos of his wife naked in the couple’s garden, he said, adding: “I never thought she wouldn’t play this game. That was my first big mistake.”
“I didn’t ask myself that many questions,” he confessed when asked how he had arranged a late-night meeting at the Pélicots’ home. “I don’t make excuses. I’m lost.”
He said he did not mean to rape, but “since I never got Mrs. Pelicot’s consent, I have no choice but to accept the facts.”
‘Nice and caring’
One of the oldest defendants is Jacques Cubeau, a 72-year-old retired firefighter, truck driver and pizzeria owner who is described by his family as “kind and caring” and whose Catholic upbringing prompted him to “do good around him.”
“I have the deepest respect for women,” the grandfather said, prompting the judge to ask, “How can this statement be reconciled with the charges against you for raping an unconscious woman?”
“I thought it was a fantasy of theirs… I got the idea it was a shy woman in a swinging couple,” he said, apologizing but denying rape.
His insistence that he had not had penetrative or oral sex with Ms. Pelicot (he claimed he had not used his tongue) prompted the judge to show for the first time a shocking video of Cubeau apparently doing so.
“I realized I might be abusing her, but I didn’t realize it right away,” he muttered in explanation.
After the video was played, the presiding judge, Roger Arata, ruled that no further footage would be shown if the public or journalists were present in the courtroom, despite Ms Pélicot’s request that the footage be released without restriction.
“We must not be afraid to face rape,” said Stephane Babonneau, one of Ms. Pélicot’s lawyers. “This is the process with the potential to change society [but we] “We must have the courage to face what rape really means,” she said.
Suspects booed
As the trial continues, suspects are booed, leading some to threaten journalists and protesters. One even punched a camera crew and was captured on camera shouting, “Watch out or I’ll rape your mother too.”
Meanwhile, public support for Ms Pélicot is growing by the day and people cheer her on when she appears in court.
France is now asking whether the trial could be a turning point for a patriarchal society that tolerates the treatment of women as objects.
Rose Lamy, a feminist writer, said in an interview with France Info that the case could finally put an end to the idea that sexism and sexual violence are only committed by “others” – perverts, monsters, serial killers.
They were also committed by “good fathers,” she said.
Ms Lamy said the fact that the victim was drugged and unconscious made it difficult to argue that she somehow asked for it, and the overwhelming visual evidence meant that rape could not be trivialised. “There is no real angle of attack against the victim,” she said.
Mrs Lamy said in particular: “This trial confirms in stone the idea that this kind of violence is committed by Mr Tout-le-Monde.”
“Feminist activists have been promoting this idea for years, but perhaps in limited circles. With this trial, everyone will definitely hear about it from now on.”