A man has been found guilty on retrial of raping Gisele Pelicot after she was sedated by her husband – and was given his jail term increased to ten years.
Retrial Proceedings
The defendant, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his first conviction last year, faced a appeal hearing this week at the higher court in Nîmes.
A jury of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her bedroom in Provence in the morning of June 29, 2019.
The testimony revealed that Dogan, a family man, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform named “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was seeking men to come to his home to rape his wife once he had sedated her into a deep sleep.
We trust the jury will declare that in this country, human rights are also women’s rights – that permission is individual, not transferred,” said the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Consent is received directly and not by proxy from a spouse.”
Background
The husband, a notorious sex offenders in recent French history, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and inviting numerous individuals to sexually assault her in her home in the community of Mazan over a duration of almost a decade of their union.
Fifty other men were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to contest his conviction. He was originally sentenced to 9 years in prison, a punishment raised on Thursday to ten years.
The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve twelve years, because he “completely denies to take any accountability”.
Evidence Presented
The defendant had first sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his village in Provence to rape the victim, after telling his wife he was stepping out, the testimony revealed.
The ex-husband, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the retrial, stated to the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “sedated” and he said to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to violate my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”
The courtroom became a central issue for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to claim he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the residence, his conduct had been permissible.
The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with recorded footage of the victim's unresponsive form, unconscious and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a grinning Dogan engaged in violation multiple times over a duration of what police said was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The state's case said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not consented.
Accused's Testimony
Dogan informed the court the videos were simply “sexual encounters” and disputed it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He told the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I tried to halt,” Dogan stated to the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”
Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to harm that lady.”
Pelicot's Words
The survivor, who was supported upon leaving court each day by crowds gathered to stand with her, said to the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you raped me? It is unlawful to rape an unconscious woman. When did I ever give you agreement? Not once.”
Gisèle Pelicot, 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, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is possibly in the midst of that, maybe propelled by the collective awareness resulting from the revelation of your ordeal.”
Sie said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how societal tolerance was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”
Sie said to the defendant: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire unpleasant societal structure that you are endorsing.”
Defendant's Background
Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his parent was violent and that the defendant began consuming marijuana at the age of 10. When he was seventeen he was stopped by police for dealing drugs and his father forced him to leave the residence. He served time in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of being unhoused.
He was wed and had a child with special needs, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his wife did not know he had regular sexual encounters beyond their marriage. His defence said this was his way of coping with his stressful life. The defendant had stated to a mental health expert that annually he looked for transactional encounters on his birthday. His attorneys told the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the pressure of the initial proceedings.
