French Higher Court Raises Jail Time for Gisele Pelicot Perpetrator

A man has been found guilty on higher court review of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her husband – and was given his prison sentence raised to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, 44, 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, sitting with three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her home in southern France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a married father, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, the husband, in an online chatroom called “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was looking for men to enter his residence to rape his wife once he had sedated her into a comatose state.

“We hope the jury will affirm that in this nation, human rights are also women’s rights – that permission is personal, not transferred,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Permission is received personally and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Background

The husband, one of the worst sexual predators in modern French history, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for drugging his then wife and soliciting numerous individuals to sexually assault her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a span of many years of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to contest his sentence. He was first handed a term to 9 years in prison, a punishment raised on Thursday to a decade.

The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any accountability”.

Courtroom Details

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his village in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was going out, the evidence indicated.

The ex-husband, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to briefly testify at the appeal trial, stated to the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her without her knowledge.”

The proceedings became a key topic for a broader debate on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to assert he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the bedroom, his behavior had been permissible.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown recorded footage of the victim's limp body, unconscious and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault on several occasions over a duration of what investigators stated was three and a half hours. The presiding judge said she had been at danger of death by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been incapacitated and had not given permission.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant informed the court the videos were simply “sexual encounters” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. He stated the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the house, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I tried to halt,” Dogan informed the court. “I continued because he reassured me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to harm that individual.”

Survivor's Statement

The survivor, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers assembled to support her, addressed Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you assaulted me? It is unlawful to rape an unaware woman. When did I ever give you permission? Never.”

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

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. The community is perhaps in the course of that, perhaps propelled by the collective awareness spurred by the publication of your case.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how societal tolerance was still prevalent in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “male domination”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor addressed the defendant: “While you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire unpleasant social system that you are supporting.”

Personal History

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 came to the nation of France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The court heard that his parent was violent and that the defendant began smoking cannabis aged ten. When he was seventeen he was apprehended by police for dealing drugs and his father evicted him of home. He served time in prison for trafficking in his early 20s and had worked as a laborer but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had frequent intimate relations beyond their marriage. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his stressful life. Dogan had told a court psychologist that annually he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His attorneys stated to the court he had a medical condition resulting from the pressure of the original case.