French Higher Tribunal Uphighers Jail Time for Gisèle Pelicot Rapist

A man has been found guilty on appeal of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was sedated by her spouse – and has had his prison sentence raised to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

The defendant, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had contested his first conviction last year, underwent a appeal hearing this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of four women and five men, joined by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her bedroom in the south of France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that Dogan, a married father, connected with the victim's spouse, the husband, in an internet forum titled “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was seeking men to visit his house to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

“We hope the panel will declare that in this nation, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is personal, not transferred,” said the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is secured directly and not through someone else from a husband.”

Background

The husband, a notorious sex offenders in recent French history, was handed a sentence to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his spouse and bringing in numerous individuals to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a duration of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to challenge his conviction. He was originally sentenced to nine years in prison, a sentence enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any accountability”.

Courtroom Details

The defendant had first sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his town in the region to assault the victim, after notifying his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to briefly give evidence at the appeal trial, informed the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “incapacitated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to assault my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious unbeknownst to her.”

The proceedings became a central issue for a broader debate on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to assert he was innocent and had not committed rape, contending that because the victim's husband had invited him into the residence, his behavior had been acceptable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was shown video evidence of the victim's limp body, unconscious and snoring in a deep sleep, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation on several occasions over a timeframe of what authorities reported was 3.5 hours. The presiding judge said she had been at peril of death by asphyxiation. The state's case said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan stated to the court the videos were simply “sexual encounters” and rejected it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the home, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” Dogan informed the court. “I continued because he reassured me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to injure that woman.”

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by onlookers assembled to back her, told the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It is illegal to rape an incapacitated woman. How could I have give you agreement? At no time.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she gave up her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

State's Argument

Sie, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's refusal to take blame showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. Society is maybe in the course of that, possibly driven by the public consciousness brought by the publication of your ordeal.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “male domination”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a culture of consent.”

The prosecutor said to the defendant: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an complete unpleasant cultural framework that you are endorsing.”

Personal History

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of France, where his father worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his parent was abusive and that the defendant began smoking cannabis at the age of 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was caught by police for selling narcotics and his parent kicked him out the residence. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his twenties and had worked as a builder but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a child with special needs, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his spouse did not know he had repeated extramarital activities outside their union. His defence said this was his way of coping with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had told a evaluator that once a year he engaged in commercial sex on his birthday. His legal representatives stated to the court he had a medical condition triggered by the pressure of the initial proceedings.