A man was declared guilty on retrial of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her husband – and was given his prison sentence raised to ten years.
Higher Court Case
Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a new trial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.
A jury of four women and five men, sitting with three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her bedroom in the south of France in the morning of 29 June 2019.
The testimony revealed that Dogan, a married father, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, the husband, in an online chatroom called “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was looking for men to visit his house to assault his wife once he had drugged her into a comatose state.
“We hope the court will affirm that in this country, human rights are also rights of women – that agreement is personal, not transferred,” declared the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Consent is received directly and not by proxy from a husband.”
Background
The husband, a notorious sexual predators in modern French history, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his then wife and soliciting dozens of men to rape her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a period of many years of their marriage.
Numerous other individuals were found convicted in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to contest his verdict. He was first handed a term to nine years in prison, a sentence enhanced on Thursday to ten years.
The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve twelve years, because he “completely denies to take any responsibility”.
Evidence Presented
The defendant had first sent the husband graphic images and then driven an hour from his town in Provence to assault the victim, after telling his wife he was going out, the evidence indicated.
Pelicot, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the hearing, informed the court that the accused had known his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her consent.”
The trial became a central issue for a broader debate on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to claim he was innocent and had not engaged in violation, arguing that because the victim's husband had invited him into the residence, his conduct had been permissible.
The jury in the higher court was displayed visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, unconscious and snoring in a deep sleep, while a smiling Dogan performed assault repeatedly over a duration of what police said was several hours. The judge said she had been at peril of death by choking. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been incapacitated and had not given permission.
Accused's Testimony
The defendant stated to the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was assault. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He declared the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan told the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”
Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to hurt that woman.”
Pelicot's Words
The victim, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers present to stand with her, said to the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you assaulted me? It is unlawful to assault an incapacitated woman. How could I have give you consent? Not once.”
Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she relinquished her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”
Prosecutor's Remarks
Sie, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s failure to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is perhaps in the course of that, possibly driven by the collective awareness resulting from the exposure of your situation.”
The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how rape culture was still common in society as part of “archaic” forms of “male domination”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”
Sie addressed the defendant: “While you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an complete sordid societal structure that you are endorsing.”
Biographical Details
Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to the nation of France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The court heard that his father was violent and that the defendant began using drugs at the age of ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was apprehended by authorities for selling narcotics and his father evicted him of home. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a construction worker but had undergone periods of homelessness.
He was wed and had a son with special needs, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had frequent extramarital activities outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his stressful life. Dogan had informed a evaluator that annually he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His lawyers told the court he had a medical condition resulting from the stress of the first trial.
