A defendant has been found guilty on higher court review of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her then-husband – and was given his prison sentence extended to ten years.
Higher Court Case
The defendant, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his first conviction last year, faced a retrial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.
A jury of four women and five men, accompanied by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her residence in Provence in the early hours of June 29, 2019.
The testimony revealed that Dogan, a married father, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, the husband, in an online chatroom titled “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was looking for men to come to his home to rape his wife once he had sedated her into a deep sleep.
We trust the jury will say loud and clear that in this country, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that agreement is individual, not transferred,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is secured personally and not by proxy from a husband.”
Context
Dominique Pelicot, a notorious sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was handed a sentence to twenty years in prison last year for drugging his then wife and soliciting numerous individuals to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a duration of many years of their marriage.
Numerous other individuals were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to appeal against his sentence. He was originally handed a term to nine years in prison, a sentence increased on Thursday to ten years.
The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any accountability”.
Courtroom Details
The defendant had first sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his town in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was stepping out, the evidence indicated.
Pelicot, who was transported from segregation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the hearing, informed the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “drugged” and he told to men by phone: “I want someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”
The trial became a central issue for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to assert he was not guilty and had not engaged in violation, stating that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the residence, his conduct had been acceptable.
The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s unresponsive form, unconscious and snoring in a deep sleep, while a grinning Dogan engaged in violation on several occasions over a duration of what investigators stated was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not consented.
Defendant's Statements
Dogan informed the court the videos were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was violation. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the home, and therefore it was OK. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan stated to the court. “I continued because he convinced me.”
Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to harm that woman.”
Survivor's Statement
The victim, who was cheered upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds gathered to stand with her, addressed the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you acknowledge you raped me? It is illegal to rape an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you agreement? At no time.”
The victim, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she gave up her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”
State's Argument
Sie, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s failure to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The public is possibly in the midst of that, possibly driven by the collective awareness brought by the publication of your ordeal.”
Sie said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how societal tolerance was still prevalent in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”
The prosecutor told the defendant: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an complete sordid cultural framework that you are upholding.”
Biographical Details
Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 came to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his father was aggressive and that Dogan began using drugs aged ten. When he was 17 he was stopped by police for selling narcotics and his parent forced him to leave the residence. He served time in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a builder but had experienced periods of being unhoused.
He was married and had a son with a genetic condition, who he was the primary guardian for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his wife did not know he had regular sexual encounters beyond their marriage. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had told a mental health expert that annually he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His lawyers told the court he had a medical condition resulting from the anxiety of the original case.
