French Appeal Court Increases Jail Time for Gisele Pelicot Perpetrator

A man was convicted on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her husband – and was given his jail term extended to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

The defendant, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his first conviction last year, faced a appeal hearing this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A jury of four women and five men, joined by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her home in the south of France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a family man, connected with the victim's husband at the time, the husband, in an digital platform named “without her consent”, where Pelicot was looking for men to enter his residence to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a deep sleep.

We expect the jury will declare that in this society, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that agreement is personal, not delegated,” declared the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Permission is secured directly and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Case History

The ex-husband, among the most severe sex offenders in recent French history, was sentenced to two decades in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and inviting numerous individuals to sexually assault her in her home in the town of Mazan over a period of almost a decade of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to challenge his conviction. He was initially handed a term to nine years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to 10 years.

The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any accountability”.

Courtroom Details

The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his town in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was leaving, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to briefly testify at the retrial, told the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “incapacitated” and he told to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her consent.”

The courtroom became a central issue for a larger conversation on sexual violence norms in society as the defendant continued to claim he was blameless and had not engaged in violation, contending that because the victim's husband had invited him into the residence, his actions had been acceptable.

The jury in the higher court was presented with video evidence of the victim's unresponsive form, sedated and snoring in a comatose state, while a smiling Dogan committed rape on several occasions over a timeframe of what authorities reported was 3.5 hours. The presiding judge said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by choking. The prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unaware and had not consented.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan told the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and disputed it was violation. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the residence, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused told the court. “I carried on because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to hurt that lady.”

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters present to stand with her, told Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is illegal to rape an unconscious woman. How could I have give you agreement? Not once.”

The victim, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she gave up her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

State's Argument

The prosecutor, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. Society is maybe in the process of that, perhaps driven by the societal understanding resulting from the publication of your case.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

Sie told the defendant: “While you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an complete sordid cultural framework that you are upholding.”

Personal History

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of five relocated to France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The court heard that his parent was abusive and that the defendant began smoking cannabis aged ten. When Dogan was 17 he was apprehended by police for selling narcotics and his parent kicked him out the residence. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his early 20s and had worked as a laborer but had undergone periods of living on the streets.

He was married 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 evidence showed his spouse did not know he had frequent sexual encounters outside their marriage. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. The defendant had stated to a court psychologist that once a year he engaged in paid sex on his birthday. His attorneys stated to the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the anxiety of the first trial.