A defendant was declared guilty on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her husband – and was given his incarceration period raised to ten years.
Appeal Trial
Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a appeal hearing this week at the higher court in Nîmes.
A panel of nine jurors, joined by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her residence in the south of France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.
The evidence showed that the accused, a married father, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, the husband, in an digital platform called “without her consent”, where the husband was seeking men to enter his residence to rape his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a deep sleep.
We trust the panel will affirm that in this country, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is personal, not given by another,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, her legal representative. “Permission is secured personally and not through someone else from a husband.”
Case History
The husband, one of the worst sexual predators in modern French history, was handed a sentence to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his spouse and bringing in multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the town of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their union.
Fifty other men were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to contest his verdict. He was first handed a term to nine years in prison, a punishment raised on Thursday to a decade.
The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any responsibility”.
Courtroom Details
Dogan had first sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his town in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was going out, the court heard.
Pelicot, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily testify at the appeal trial, told the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.”
The courtroom became a central issue for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to say he was innocent and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the room, his behavior had been permissible.
The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed recorded footage of the victim's unconscious figure, unconscious and snoring in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator committed rape multiple times over a timeframe of what authorities reported was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by choking. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been incapacitated and had not given permission.
Defendant's Statements
Dogan stated to the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and disputed it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He declared the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the house, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” Dogan stated to the court. “I continued because he convinced me.”
Asked if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to hurt that lady.”
Pelicot's Words
The victim, who was cheered upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers present to back her, told the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It’s a crime to rape an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you consent? Never.”
The victim, 72, became an global icon after she gave up her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”
State's Argument
The prosecutor, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is perhaps in the course of that, maybe motivated by the public consciousness spurred by the publication of your ordeal.”
The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how societal tolerance was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”
The prosecutor addressed Dogan: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire sordid social system that you are upholding.”
Biographical Details
Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five came to France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The court heard that his father was violent and that the defendant began smoking cannabis aged ten. When he was seventeen he was stopped by police for dealing drugs and his parent forced him to leave of home. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his early 20s and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of homelessness.
He was wed and had a child with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had repeated extramarital activities beyond their union. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. Dogan had informed a mental health expert that once a year he looked for paid sex on his birthday. His attorneys informed the court he had a medical condition caused by the stress of the initial proceedings.
