French Higher Tribunal Raises Jail Time for Gisele Pelicot Perpetrator

An individual has been found guilty on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her husband – and received his incarceration period extended to 10 years.

Higher Court Case

Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a appeal hearing this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A jury of five men and four women, accompanied by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her bedroom in southern France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a family man, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, the husband, in an internet forum named “without her knowledge”, where the husband was seeking men to come to his home to rape his wife once he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

We trust the court will declare that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that permission is personal, not given by another,” stated the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Consent is secured directly and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Context

The husband, one of the worst sexual predators in recent French history, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his spouse and soliciting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to challenge his conviction. He was originally handed a term to nine years in prison, a sentence raised on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any blame”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had initially sent the husband graphic images and then driven an hour from his town in the region to rape the victim, after informing his wife he was leaving, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the retrial, told the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “sedated” and he said to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to assault my wife after I’ve sedated her without her knowledge.”

The courtroom became a key topic for a broader debate on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to assert he was innocent and had not engaged in violation, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had welcomed him into the residence, his conduct had been permissible.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown visual proof of the victim's limp body, unconscious and breathing heavily in a deep sleep, while a smiling the perpetrator engaged in violation repeatedly over a period of what police said was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by suffocation. The prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed.

Defendant's Statements

The defendant stated to the court the videos were simply “sexual encounters” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the residence, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused stated to the court. “I proceeded because he persuaded me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to injure that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

The victim, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by supporters present to back her, addressed the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is illegal to rape an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you consent? Not once.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she gave up her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, speaking to the victim in court, said Dogan’s failure to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is maybe in the course of that, perhaps propelled by the collective awareness resulting from the revelation of your case.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how rape culture was still common in society as part of “outdated” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

Sie told the defendant: “While you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an complete disturbing social system that you are upholding.”

Personal History

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The court heard that his father was violent and that Dogan began smoking cannabis at the age of ten. When Dogan was 17 he was caught by authorities for dealing drugs and his parent kicked him out the residence. He spent time in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a laborer but had experienced periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his wife did not know he had regular extramarital activities beyond their marriage. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his stressful life. Dogan had stated to a mental health expert that annually he looked for transactional encounters on his birthday. His lawyers told the court he had arthritis caused by the pressure of the initial proceedings.