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An individual was declared guilty on higher court review of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her spouse – and was given his prison sentence raised to a decade.

Higher Court Case

Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his first conviction last year, faced a retrial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A jury of four women and five men, joined by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her bedroom in southern France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that Dogan, a family man, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, the husband, in an online chatroom called “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was looking for men to come to his home to assault his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a unconscious state.

“We hope the panel will say loud and clear that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that agreement is personal, not transferred,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Consent is secured directly and not via a representative from a husband.”

Context

Dominique Pelicot, among the most severe sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for incapacitating his wife at the time and bringing in multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a period of many years of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found convicted in a notable trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to contest his conviction. He was initially handed a term to nine years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to ten years.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “completely denies to take any blame”.

Evidence Presented

Dogan had first sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his residence in Provence to rape the victim, after notifying his wife he was leaving, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily testify at the hearing, told the court that the accused had known his wife had been “incapacitated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to assault my wife after I’ve put her to sleep unbeknownst to her.”

The trial became a central issue for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to claim he was blameless and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the room, his actions had been permissible.

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 smiling Dogan performed assault on several occasions over a timeframe of what investigators stated was 3.5 hours. The judge said she had been at danger of death by asphyxiation. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan told the court the recordings were simply “sexual encounters” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He declared the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan stated to the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to harm that individual.”

Survivor's Statement

The victim, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds present to stand with her, told Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is illegal to rape an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you permission? Not once.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an symbol of resistance after she waived her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take accountability showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. Society is possibly in the process of that, maybe propelled by the collective awareness brought by the publication of your case.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how societal tolerance was still prevalent in society as part of “outdated” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

Sie said to Dogan: “While you deny it, it’s not just a person, it’s an complete sordid societal structure that you are upholding.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five relocated to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his father was abusive and that Dogan began consuming marijuana aged ten. When he was seventeen he was apprehended by police for dealing drugs and his father forced him to leave of home. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a son with a genetic condition, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The court heard his spouse did not know he had regular intimate relations outside their union. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had stated to a court psychologist that each year he engaged in transactional encounters on his special day. His attorneys informed the court he had a medical condition triggered by the pressure of the initial proceedings.