A man was convicted on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband – and was given his jail term raised to 10 years.
Appeal Trial
Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a retrial 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 raping the victim in her bedroom in Provence in the early hours of 29 June 2019.
The testimony revealed that Dogan, a family man, connected with the victim's spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom called “without her consent”, where Pelicot was looking for men to enter his residence to assault his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.
We expect the jury will say loud and clear that in this society, human rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is individual, not given by another,” said the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Permission is obtained personally and not by proxy from a spouse.”
Background
The husband, one of the worst sexual predators in recent French history, was handed a sentence to twenty years in prison last year for drugging his wife at the time and inviting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a duration of many years of their union.
Numerous other individuals were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to appeal against his conviction. He was originally handed a term to 9 years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to a decade.
The chief prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “completely denies to take any responsibility”.
Testimony and Proof
The defendant had first sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his residence in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was going out, the evidence indicated.
Pelicot, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily give evidence at the retrial, informed the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “incapacitated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to violate my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious unbeknownst to her.”
The proceedings became a focus point for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to say he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the bedroom, his conduct had been permissible.
The panel in the higher court was presented with video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, unconscious and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a smiling the perpetrator performed assault multiple times over a duration of what police said was several hours. The presiding judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been unaware and had not consented.
Dogan's Claims
The defendant informed the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and rejected it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He stated the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the residence, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” the accused told the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”
Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to injure that woman.”
Pelicot's Words
The survivor, who was cheered upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds present to back her, addressed Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you violated me? It is illegal to assault an unconscious woman. How could I have give you consent? Not once.”
The victim, seventy-two, became an global icon after she gave up her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”
Prosecutor's Remarks
The prosecutor, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take accountability showed that: “The shame remains. Society is maybe in the midst of that, perhaps driven by the societal understanding resulting from the exposure of your case.”
The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how societal tolerance was still widespread in society as part of “archaic” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a culture of consent.”
The prosecutor said to Dogan: “While you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an complete unpleasant cultural framework that you are endorsing.”
Biographical Details
The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five relocated to France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his father was violent and that Dogan began using drugs aged 10. When he was 17 he was apprehended by authorities for drug trafficking and his parent kicked him out the family house. He served time in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a construction worker but had undergone periods of living on the streets.
He was wed and had a son with special needs, who he was the primary guardian for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The court heard his wife did not know he had regular extramarital activities beyond their marriage. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had informed a evaluator that once a year he looked for paid sex on his birthday. His attorneys stated to the court he had arthritis caused by the anxiety of the original case.
