French Higher Tribunal Uphighers Sentence for Gisele Pelicot Assailant

A defendant has been found guilty on higher court review of raping Gisele Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and received his incarceration period extended to a decade.

Higher Court Case

Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a new trial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A jury of four women and five men, accompanied by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her residence in southern France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a family man, made contact with the victim's spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum named “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was seeking men to visit his house to rape his wife once he had drugged her into a comatose state.

We expect the panel will declare that in this society, human rights are also rights of women – that agreement is personal, not transferred,” stated the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Consent is secured directly and not through someone else from a husband.”

Context

The ex-husband, among the most severe sex offenders in modern French history, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his then wife and inviting numerous individuals to sexually assault her in her home in the community of Mazan over a period of almost a decade of their marriage.

Numerous other individuals were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to contest his conviction. He was originally sentenced to nine years in prison, a punishment raised on Thursday to a decade.

The chief prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any responsibility”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had initially sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his village in the region to assault the victim, after informing his wife he was leaving, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the retrial, told the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.”

The proceedings became a focus point for a broader debate on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to claim he was blameless and had not engaged in violation, contending that because the victim's husband had invited him into the residence, his conduct had been permissible.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was shown visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, comatose and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning Dogan performed assault multiple times over a timeframe of what investigators stated was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at risk of death by asphyxiation. The state's case said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan told the court the recordings were simply “sexual encounters” and denied it was rape. 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 home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused informed the court. “I proceeded because he reassured me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to injure that individual.”

Victim's Response

The survivor, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by onlookers gathered to back her, addressed Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When are you going to recognise you violated me? It is illegal to assault an unaware woman. At what point did I give you consent? At no time.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an symbol of resistance after she gave up her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

State's Argument

Sie, addressing the victim in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The public is perhaps in the course of that, maybe driven by the public consciousness spurred by the publication of your case.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor said to the defendant: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire sordid social system that you are endorsing.”

Personal History

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The testimony revealed that his father was violent and that the defendant began consuming marijuana aged 10. When he was 17 he was stopped by authorities for selling narcotics and his father forced him to leave the family house. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his early 20s and had worked as a laborer but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a son with special needs, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a educational cafeteria. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had repeated intimate relations outside their marriage. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his stressful life. The defendant had informed a evaluator that each year he engaged in paid sex on his special day. His legal representatives informed the court he had joint inflammation caused by the pressure of the first trial.