A defendant was convicted on appeal of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was sedated by her spouse – and was given his prison sentence increased to 10 years.
Appeal Trial
Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his first conviction last year, experienced a retrial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.
A panel of five men and four women, joined by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her bedroom in the south of France in the morning of June 29, 2019.
The testimony revealed that the accused, a family man, made contact with the victim's spouse, the husband, in an internet forum titled “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to enter his residence to assault his wife after he had sedated her into a deep sleep.
“We hope the court will declare that in this society, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that agreement is individual, not delegated,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is obtained directly and not via a representative from a husband.”
Background
The ex-husband, among the most severe sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to 20 years in prison last year for drugging his spouse and bringing in dozens of men to rape her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their union.
Numerous other individuals were found convicted in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to appeal against his verdict. He was first given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to ten years.
The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any accountability”.
Courtroom Details
Dogan had initially sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then driven an hour from his town in Provence to rape the victim, after telling his wife he was leaving, the court heard.
The ex-husband, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the appeal trial, stated to the court that the accused had known his wife had been “sedated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to violate my wife after I’ve sedated her without her knowledge.”
The courtroom became a central issue for a broader debate on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to say he was blameless and had not engaged in violation, arguing that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the residence, his behavior had been justifiable.
The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed recorded footage of the victim's limp body, comatose and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning Dogan committed rape repeatedly over a timeframe of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state's case said there was absolute certainty that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed.
Dogan's Claims
Dogan informed the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and disputed it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” Dogan told the court. “I continued because he convinced me.”
Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to injure that individual.”
Victim's Response
The victim, who was applauded upon leaving court each day by onlookers assembled to back her, said to Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When are you going to recognise you assaulted me? It’s a crime to assault an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you agreement? Not once.”
The victim, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she relinquished her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”
Legal Commentary
The prosecutor, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's refusal to take responsibility showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The community is possibly in the course of that, maybe driven by the collective awareness spurred by the publication of your situation.”
The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how societal tolerance was still common in society as part of “archaic” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”
Sie told Dogan: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an complete unpleasant cultural framework that you are upholding.”
Personal History
The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 came to France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his parent was violent and that the defendant began using drugs at the age of 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was caught by authorities for dealing drugs and his parent forced him to leave the family house. He served time in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a builder but had experienced periods of being unhoused.
He was married and had a son with Down’s syndrome, 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 frequent intimate relations outside their union. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. The defendant had told a court psychologist that once a year he sought commercial sex on his special day. His lawyers told the court he had arthritis resulting from the stress of the first trial.
