An individual was declared guilty on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot following she was sedated by her husband – and has had his jail term raised to ten years.
Higher Court Case
Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a retrial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.
A panel of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her home in the south of France in the morning of 29 June 2019.
The testimony revealed that the accused, a married father, connected with the victim's husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom called “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to come to his home to assault his wife once he had drugged her into a unconscious state.
We expect the jury will say loud and clear that in this country, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that agreement is individual, not given by another,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Consent is obtained directly and not through someone else from a spouse.”
Case History
The ex-husband, one of the worst sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for drugging his then wife and bringing in numerous individuals to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a period of almost a decade of their union.
Dozens of additional defendants were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to challenge his sentence. He was originally given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to a decade.
The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any accountability”.
Testimony and Proof
The defendant had initially sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his residence in the region to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was going out, the evidence indicated.
Pelicot, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to briefly testify at the hearing, told the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “incapacitated” and he told to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to violate my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”
The trial became a central issue for a wider discussion on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to assert he was blameless and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the residence, his behavior had been acceptable.
The panel in the higher court was displayed visual proof of the victim's unresponsive form, unconscious and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation on several occasions over a timeframe of what police said was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state's case said there was absolute certainty that she had been incapacitated and had not given permission.
Defendant's Statements
Dogan stated to the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and disputed it was violation. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He stated the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused informed the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”
Questioned if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to hurt that individual.”
Victim's Response
Gisèle Pelicot, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by onlookers gathered to back her, addressed Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It is illegal to assault an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you permission? At no time.”
The victim, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she waived her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”
State's Argument
The prosecutor, speaking to the victim in court, said Dogan’s failure to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. Society is possibly in the course of that, perhaps motivated by the societal understanding resulting from the publication of your ordeal.”
Sie said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how rape culture was still common in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a culture of consent.”
Sie said to Dogan: “As long as you reject it, it’s not just a person, it’s an entire disturbing cultural framework that you are supporting.”
Biographical Details
The accused was originated from the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his father was abusive and that Dogan began consuming marijuana at the age of ten. When Dogan was 17 he was stopped by authorities for dealing drugs and his father forced him to leave the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of living on the streets.
He was wed and had a child with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The court heard his spouse did not know he had regular intimate relations beyond their marriage. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. The defendant had informed a evaluator that annually he engaged in transactional encounters on his birthday. His legal representatives told the court he had joint inflammation triggered by the pressure of the initial proceedings.
