French Higher Tribunal Uphighers Sentence for Gisele Pelicot Assailant

An individual was declared guilty on higher court review of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was sedated by her then-husband – and was given his incarceration period extended to ten years.

Higher Court Case

Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a retrial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A panel of four women and five men, joined by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her bedroom in the south of France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that Dogan, a family man, connected with the victim's husband at the time, the husband, in an online chatroom called “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was seeking men to visit his house to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

“We hope the panel will declare that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that permission is individual, not transferred,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is received directly and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Context

Dominique Pelicot, a notorious sexual predators in modern French history, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his then wife and inviting 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 union.

Numerous other individuals were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to challenge his verdict. He was first given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a penalty enhanced on Thursday to 10 years.

The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any blame”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had initially sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his town in the region to assault the victim, after telling his wife he was stepping out, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was transported from isolation in prison to briefly testify at the hearing, told the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “sedated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to assault my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her consent.”

The proceedings became a focus point for a wider discussion on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to say he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, stating that because the victim's husband had invited him into the residence, his behavior had been permissible.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with visual proof of the victim's limp body, comatose and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a smiling the perpetrator engaged in violation multiple times over a timeframe of what police said was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan informed the court the footage were simply “sexual encounters” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He declared 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 manipulated by the husband. “I attempted to cease,” the accused stated to the court. “I carried on because he reassured me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to injure that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

The victim, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by onlookers assembled to back her, addressed the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you admit you assaulted me? It is illegal to assault an unaware woman. When did I ever give you consent? Not once.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an global icon after she relinquished her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, speaking to the victim in court, said the defendant's refusal to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. Society is maybe in the course of that, maybe motivated by the collective awareness brought by the exposure of your situation.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how societal tolerance was still prevalent in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor told the defendant: “As long as you reject it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole unpleasant societal structure that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his father was violent and that the defendant began consuming marijuana aged ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was apprehended by authorities for drug trafficking and his father kicked him out of home. He spent time in prison for drug dealing in his early 20s and had worked as a laborer but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The court heard his wife did not know he had repeated extramarital activities outside their marriage. His defence said this was his way of coping with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had told a evaluator that once a year he engaged in commercial sex on his special day. His legal representatives told the court he had a medical condition resulting from the anxiety of the initial proceedings.