A man was convicted on retrial of raping Gisele Pelicot after she was sedated by her spouse – and received his prison sentence raised to ten years.
Retrial Proceedings
Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had appealed his first conviction last year, underwent a retrial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.
A panel of four women and five men, sitting with three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her bedroom in the south of France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.
The court heard that Dogan, a family man, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s then husband, the husband, in an online chatroom called “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was looking for men to visit his house to assault his wife after he had sedated her into a unconscious state.
We expect the panel will affirm that in this society, human rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is personal, not transferred,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is received directly and not through someone else from a husband.”
Case History
Dominique Pelicot, among the most severe sex offenders in recent French history, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for incapacitating his wife at the time 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.
Dozens of additional defendants were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to contest his sentence. He was first handed a term to nine years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to 10 years.
The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any accountability”.
Evidence Presented
Dogan had initially sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then traveled an hour from his town in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the testimony revealed.
The ex-husband, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the hearing, told the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “sedated” and he told to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to violate my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her consent.”
The courtroom became a focus point for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to say he was blameless and had not perpetrated assault, stating that because the victim's husband had invited him into the bedroom, his conduct had been permissible.
The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with recorded footage of the victim's unresponsive form, comatose and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning Dogan performed assault multiple times over a duration of what investigators stated was three and a half hours. The judge said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by choking. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.
Dogan's Claims
Dogan stated to the court the videos were simply “sexual encounters” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not assault. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan stated to the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”
Inquired if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to injure that lady.”
Victim's Response
The victim, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers present to stand with her, told Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is illegal to assault an unconscious woman. When did I ever give you agreement? At no time.”
Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an symbol of resistance after she relinquished her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”
State's Argument
Sie, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is possibly in the process of that, perhaps motivated by the collective awareness spurred by the publication of your case.”
The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how rape culture was still common in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”
The prosecutor said to Dogan: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an complete unpleasant social system that you are endorsing.”
Defendant's Background
The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his parent was abusive and that Dogan began smoking cannabis at the age of 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was caught by authorities for dealing drugs and his father forced him to leave the residence. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a laborer but had experienced periods of living on the streets.
He was married and had a son with special needs, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had repeated sexual encounters outside their union. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his stressful life. The defendant had stated to a evaluator that once a year he looked for transactional encounters on his special day. His attorneys stated to the court he had arthritis caused by the anxiety of the original case.
