An individual has been found guilty on appeal of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was sedated by her then-husband – and has had his incarceration period raised to 10 years.
The defendant, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict 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 home in southern France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.
The court heard that Dogan, a married father, made contact with the victim's then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom titled “without her consent”, where Pelicot was looking for men to come to his home to assault his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a deep sleep.
We expect the jury will say loud and clear that in this society, human rights are also women’s rights – that permission is individual, not delegated,” declared the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Consent is obtained personally and not via a representative from a spouse.”
Dominique Pelicot, a notorious sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for incapacitating his wife at the time and inviting dozens of men to rape her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a period of nearly ten years of their union.
Fifty other men were found convicted in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to contest his verdict. He was first handed a term to 9 years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to a decade.
The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any blame”.
Dogan had initially sent the husband graphic images and then driven an hour from his town in the region to rape the victim, after notifying his wife he was stepping out, the evidence indicated.
The ex-husband, who was brought from isolation in prison to briefly give evidence at the retrial, told the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “incapacitated” and he told to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her without her knowledge.”
The courtroom became a key topic for a larger conversation on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to say he was blameless and had not perpetrated assault, stating that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the bedroom, his conduct had been justifiable.
The jury in the higher court was shown video evidence of the victim's unresponsive form, comatose and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning Dogan committed rape repeatedly over a timeframe of what authorities reported was several hours. The presiding judge said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by choking. The state's case said there was no question that she had been unaware and had not given permission.
The defendant told the court the recordings were simply “sex scenes” and rejected it was violation. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the home, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” the accused told the court. “I proceeded because he convinced me.”
Inquired if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to harm that lady.”
Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters present to stand with her, addressed Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you admit you assaulted me? It is illegal to assault an incapacitated woman. How could I have give you agreement? Not once.”
The victim, seventy-two, became an symbol of resistance after she waived her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”
Sie, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's refusal to take accountability showed that: “The shame remains. The public is possibly in the course of that, perhaps propelled by the societal understanding spurred by the exposure of your ordeal.”
The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “outdated” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”
The prosecutor said to Dogan: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole sordid social system that you are endorsing.”
The accused was originated from the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to the nation of France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The court heard that his parent was aggressive and that Dogan began using drugs at the age of 10. When he was seventeen he was apprehended by authorities for dealing drugs and his parent kicked him out of home. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a laborer but had experienced periods of being unhoused.
He was wed and had a son with special needs, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had regular intimate relations outside their marriage. His defence said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. The defendant had told a court psychologist that annually he sought transactional encounters on his special day. His legal representatives told the court he had a medical condition resulting from the pressure of the original case.
Milan is een ervaren opticien met een passie voor visuele technologie en klantgerichtheid.
