France's Higher Court Uphighers Prison Term for Gisele Pelicot Perpetrator

A man was declared guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her spouse – and was given his incarceration period extended to 10 years.

Higher Court Case

Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a new trial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A panel of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her home in Provence in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a family man, made contact with the victim's husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom named “without her consent”, where Pelicot was looking for men to enter his residence to rape his wife after he had sedated her into a comatose state.

We expect the court will say loud and clear that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that consent is personal, not transferred,” stated the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is received directly and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Case History

The ex-husband, one of the worst sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for sedating his then wife and bringing in numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a span of many years of their marriage.

Numerous other individuals were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to contest his verdict. He was originally given a sentence to nine years in prison, a punishment enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

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

Courtroom Details

Dogan had first sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his town in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was going out, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the retrial, stated to the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The courtroom became a focus point for a broader debate on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to claim he was blameless and had not engaged in violation, arguing that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the room, his actions had been justifiable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was shown video evidence of the victim's unconscious figure, unconscious and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation on several occasions over a duration of what investigators stated was several hours. The presiding judge said she had been at peril of death by choking. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unaware and had not consented.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan stated to the court the videos were simply “sex scenes” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He declared the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him to the house, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan told the court. “I continued because he reassured me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to hurt that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

The victim, who was applauded upon leaving court each day by crowds present to stand with her, told the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you admit you raped me? It is unlawful to rape an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you agreement? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she gave up her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's refusal to take responsibility showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. Society is maybe in the process of that, possibly motivated by the societal understanding brought by the revelation of your situation.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how rape culture was still widespread in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor said to the defendant: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole sordid cultural framework that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five came to France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The court heard that his parent was aggressive and that the defendant began using drugs aged ten. When Dogan was 17 he was caught by police for drug trafficking and his father evicted him the residence. He served time in prison for narcotics offenses in his twenties and had worked as a builder but had experienced periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a child with special needs, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The court heard his wife did not know he had frequent sexual encounters outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. Dogan had stated to a mental health expert that each year he sought commercial sex on his birthday. His legal representatives stated to the court he had joint inflammation caused by the anxiety of the initial proceedings.