A defendant was declared guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her husband – and received his jail term raised to a decade.
Appeal Trial
Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had appealed his first conviction last year, faced a new trial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.
A jury of nine jurors, joined by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her bedroom in the south of France in the morning of June 29, 2019.
The testimony revealed that the accused, a family man, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform named “without her knowledge”, where the husband was recruiting men to visit his house to assault his wife after he had drugged her into a unconscious state.
We expect the panel will say loud and clear that in this society, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that permission is individual, not transferred,” declared the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Consent is secured personally and not via a representative from a spouse.”
Background
The husband, a notorious sex offenders in recent French history, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his then wife and soliciting dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the town of Mazan over a duration of almost a decade of their union.
Dozens of additional defendants were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to appeal against his sentence. He was first given a sentence to nine years in prison, a sentence enhanced on Thursday to ten years.
The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any blame”.
Courtroom Details
The defendant had initially sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his town in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was stepping out, the testimony revealed.
Pelicot, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the hearing, told the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I seek someone to violate my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”
The trial became a central issue for a larger conversation on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to say he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had welcomed him into the room, his behavior had been permissible.
The panel in the higher court was displayed visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, unconscious and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a smiling the perpetrator engaged in violation on several occasions over a duration of what investigators stated was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at peril of death by choking. The prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unaware and had not given permission.
Defendant's Statements
The defendant informed the court the videos were simply “sexual encounters” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, 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 acceptable. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” Dogan told the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”
Asked if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to harm that woman.”
Victim's Response
The survivor, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters gathered to back her, told the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you assaulted me? It is illegal to rape an unaware woman. How could I have give you agreement? Never.”
Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an global icon after she waived her right to confidentiality 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 accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is maybe in the course of that, possibly motivated by the societal understanding spurred by the exposure of your case.”
The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how societal tolerance was still prevalent in society as part of “archaic” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”
Sie said to Dogan: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole unpleasant social system that you are upholding.”
Defendant's Background
The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five moved to France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his parent was violent and that Dogan began smoking cannabis aged ten. When Dogan was 17 he was caught by police for dealing drugs and his parent kicked him out of home. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a builder but had undergone periods of homelessness.
He was married and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The court heard his wife did not know he had regular intimate relations beyond their union. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had informed a evaluator that annually he looked for commercial sex on his special day. His attorneys told the court he had joint inflammation caused by the pressure of the original case.
