A man has been found guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband – and has had his jail term extended to ten years.
Retrial Proceedings
Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had contested 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, joined by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her bedroom in the south of France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.
The court heard that the accused, a married father, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, the husband, in an digital platform called “without her consent”, where Pelicot was looking for men to visit his house to assault his wife once he had drugged her into a unconscious state.
We trust the jury will say loud and clear that in this country, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that consent is personal, not delegated,” said the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is received directly and not through someone else from a husband.”
Context
The husband, a notorious sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was handed a sentence to 20 years in prison last year for incapacitating his wife at the time and soliciting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a duration of almost a decade of their union.
Dozens of additional defendants were found culpable in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to challenge his verdict. He was originally handed a term to 9 years in prison, a sentence raised on Thursday to ten years.
The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any blame”.
Courtroom Details
Dogan had initially sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his village in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.
Pelicot, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily give evidence at the hearing, informed the court that the accused had known his wife had been “sedated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve put her to sleep unbeknownst to her.”
The trial became a key topic for a broader debate on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to say he was innocent and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the bedroom, his conduct had been acceptable.
The panel in the higher court was displayed video evidence of the victim's unresponsive form, comatose and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator committed rape repeatedly over a period of what authorities reported was several hours. The judge said she had been at risk of death by asphyxiation. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.
Accused's Testimony
The defendant stated to the court the recordings were simply “sex scenes” and rejected it was assault. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He declared the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the residence, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” the accused informed the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”
Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to injure that woman.”
Pelicot's Words
The survivor, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by supporters present 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 assault an unconscious woman. How could I have give you consent? Not once.”
Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an global icon after she gave up her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”
Prosecutor's Remarks
The prosecutor, addressing the victim in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. The community is possibly in the midst of that, maybe driven by the societal understanding brought by the publication of your situation.”
Sie said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still common in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”
Sie told Dogan: “For as much as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an complete disturbing societal structure that you are supporting.”
Personal History
The accused was originated from Turkey and at the age of five relocated to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The testimony revealed that his parent was violent and that Dogan began using drugs at the age of ten. When Dogan was 17 he was caught by police for drug trafficking and his father kicked him out the residence. He was incarcerated in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had experienced periods of living on the streets.
He was married and had a son with special needs, who he was the primary guardian for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had frequent sexual encounters beyond their union. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. The defendant had stated to a mental health expert that once a year he engaged in paid sex on his birthday. His lawyers stated to the court he had arthritis caused by the anxiety of the initial proceedings.
