France's Appeal Tribunal Raises Sentence for Gisèle Pelicot Rapist

An individual has been found guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her husband – and was given his jail term extended to a decade.

Appeal Trial

The defendant, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a new trial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A panel of four women and five men, sitting with three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her bedroom in southern France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a married father, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom titled “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to enter his residence to rape his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

We trust the panel will say loud and clear that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that permission is personal, not delegated,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is received directly and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Background

The husband, a notorious sexual predators in modern French history, was handed a sentence to twenty years in prison last year for drugging his then wife and bringing in multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a span of nearly ten years of their union.

Fifty other men were found culpable in a notable trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to contest his conviction. He was first sentenced to 9 years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to ten years.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any blame”.

Courtroom Details

The defendant had first sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his residence in the region to assault the victim, after telling his wife he was going out, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to briefly provide testimony at the appeal trial, told the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “drugged” and he told to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her without her knowledge.”

The courtroom became a central issue for a larger conversation on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to assert he was blameless and had not engaged in violation, stating that because the victim's husband had invited him into the bedroom, his actions had been permissible.

The jury in the higher court was displayed video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s unresponsive form, sedated and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a smiling the perpetrator committed rape multiple times over a period of what investigators stated was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at risk of death by suffocation. The state's case said there was no doubt that she had been unaware and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan informed the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He stated the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the residence, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan stated to the court. “I proceeded because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to hurt that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

The victim, who was applauded upon leaving court each day by onlookers assembled to back her, told the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It is illegal to rape an unaware woman. When did I ever give you agreement? Never.”

The victim, 72, became an international feminist hero after she gave up her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s failure to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The public is maybe in the course of that, maybe motivated by the collective awareness brought by the publication of your case.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still common in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “It is imperative to change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

Sie addressed Dogan: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole disturbing social system that you are supporting.”

Personal History

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of five relocated to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his parent was abusive and that Dogan began smoking cannabis aged ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for selling narcotics and his father kicked him out of home. He served time in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a laborer but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a educational cafeteria. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had repeated sexual encounters beyond their union. His defence said this was his way of coping with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had informed a evaluator that once a year he looked for paid sex on his special day. His lawyers informed the court he had arthritis resulting from the stress of the first trial.