A defendant was declared guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her spouse – and was given his prison sentence raised to 10 years.
Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a retrial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.
A panel of five men and four women, joined by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her residence in the south of France in the morning of 29 June 2019.
The court heard that the accused, a married father, connected with the victim's spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum named “without her knowledge”, where the husband was recruiting men to visit his house to assault his wife once he had drugged her into a unconscious state.
“We hope the jury will say loud and clear that in this country, human rights are also women’s rights – that consent is individual, not transferred,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Consent is secured directly and not by proxy from a husband.”
Dominique Pelicot, among the most severe sexual predators in recent French history, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his then wife and soliciting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the community of Mazan over a duration of nearly ten years of their marriage.
Dozens of additional defendants were found guilty in a notable trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to contest his sentence. He was initially given a sentence to nine years in prison, a penalty enhanced on Thursday to 10 years.
The chief prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any blame”.
Dogan had initially sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his residence in the region to rape the victim, after notifying his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.
The ex-husband, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily testify at the appeal trial, stated to the court that the accused had known his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her consent.”
The proceedings became a key topic for a larger conversation on sexual violence norms in society as the defendant continued to say he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the residence, his actions had been acceptable.
The panel in the higher court was displayed video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, comatose and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning Dogan performed assault repeatedly over a period of what investigators stated was 3.5 hours. The judge said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not given permission.
Dogan informed 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 the victim's husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” Dogan told the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”
Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to injure that individual.”
Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds assembled to stand with her, said to the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is illegal to assault an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you permission? Not once.”
The victim, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she waived her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”
Sie, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's failure to take responsibility showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The public is perhaps in the midst of that, perhaps motivated by the societal understanding resulting from the exposure of your ordeal.”
The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how societal tolerance was still prevalent in society as part of “outdated” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”
Sie told Dogan: “While you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole sordid cultural framework that you are endorsing.”
Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The court heard that his parent was violent and that the defendant began using drugs at the age of 10. When he was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for selling narcotics and his father forced him to leave the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his early 20s and had worked as a laborer but had experienced periods of being unhoused.
He was married and had a son with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his wife did not know he had repeated intimate relations outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. The defendant had stated to a court psychologist that once a year he sought transactional encounters on his special day. His attorneys stated to the court he had a medical condition resulting from the pressure of the first trial.
Rashid Al-Mansoori is a tech journalist with over a decade of experience covering innovations and digital transformations in the Middle East.
