A defendant was declared guilty on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her husband – and was given his jail term increased to a decade.
Appeal Trial
Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his first conviction last year, faced a appeal hearing this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.
A jury of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her home in the south of France 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 internet forum named “without her consent”, where the husband was seeking men to come to his home to assault his wife after he had drugged her into a deep sleep.
“We hope the jury will affirm that in this nation, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that permission is individual, not given by another,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, her legal representative. “Permission is received personally and not through someone else from a spouse.”
Background
The ex-husband, a notorious sex offenders in modern French history, was sentenced to two decades in prison last year for drugging his spouse and bringing in numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a period of many years of their marriage.
Dozens of additional defendants were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to challenge his conviction. He was initially given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to ten years.
The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any responsibility”.
Testimony and Proof
Dogan had initially sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his village in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.
Pelicot, who was transported from segregation in prison to briefly provide testimony at the appeal trial, informed the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he told to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.”
The courtroom became a key topic for a larger conversation on sexual violence norms in society as the defendant continued to claim he was blameless and had not engaged in violation, stating that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the bedroom, his conduct had been acceptable.
The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, sedated and snoring in a comatose state, while a smiling the perpetrator performed assault repeatedly over a duration of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at peril of death by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.
Defendant's Statements
Dogan informed the court the recordings were simply “sexual encounters” and rejected it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He stated the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the home, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan informed the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”
Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to hurt that lady.”
Pelicot's Words
The survivor, who was cheered upon leaving court each day by crowds gathered to back her, said to the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you raped me? It’s a crime to assault an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you permission? At no time.”
Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an international feminist hero after she gave up her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”
State's Argument
Sie, speaking to the victim in court, said Dogan’s failure to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. Society is perhaps in the midst of that, perhaps propelled by the societal understanding spurred by the publication of your case.”
Sie said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “archaic” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a culture of consent.”
Sie told Dogan: “For as much as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire unpleasant social system that you are endorsing.”
Biographical Details
Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his parent was abusive and that the defendant began using drugs at the age of ten. When he was seventeen he was caught by police for selling narcotics and his parent forced him to leave of home. He served time in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a construction worker but had faced periods of homelessness.
He was wed and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a educational cafeteria. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had regular extramarital activities outside their marriage. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. The defendant had told a mental health expert that once a year he engaged in commercial sex on his birthday. His lawyers stated to the court he had arthritis triggered by the anxiety of the initial proceedings.
