🔗 Share this article France's Higher Tribunal Increases Sentence for Gisèle Pelicot Rapist An individual has been found guilty on higher court review of raping Gisele Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her then-husband – and received his jail term increased to 10 years. Appeal Trial Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a appeal hearing this week at the higher court in Nîmes. A panel of four women and five men, joined by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her home in Provence in the early hours of 29 June 2019. The court heard that Dogan, a married father, connected with the victim's spouse, the husband, in an online chatroom named “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was looking for men to enter his residence to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state. We expect the panel will say loud and clear that in this country, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that permission is personal, not transferred,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is received personally and not by proxy from a spouse.” Context The husband, one of the worst sexual predators in recent French history, was given a prison term to two decades in prison last year for drugging his spouse and bringing in numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a duration of nearly ten years of their union. Dozens of additional defendants were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to challenge his sentence. He was originally sentenced to nine years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to 10 years. The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any accountability”. Testimony and Proof The defendant had first sent the husband graphic images and then traveled an hour from his residence in the region to assault the victim, after informing his wife he was leaving, the evidence indicated. The ex-husband, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily testify at the hearing, informed the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “drugged” and he told to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.” The courtroom became a focus point for a broader debate on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to say he was innocent and had not engaged in violation, contending that because the victim's husband had welcomed 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 limp body, unconscious and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a smiling the perpetrator performed assault on several occasions over a duration of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed. Defendant's Statements Dogan told the court the recordings were simply “sex scenes” and denied it was rape. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” the accused stated to the court. “I continued because he reassured me.” Asked if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to injure that woman.” Pelicot's Words The victim, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds assembled to back her, addressed the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It is illegal to assault an unaware woman. How could I have give you consent? Not once.” Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an global icon after she gave up her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.” Prosecutor's Remarks The prosecutor, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take accountability showed that: “The shame remains. The public is perhaps in the process of that, perhaps driven by the societal understanding resulting from the revelation of your situation.” The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how societal tolerance was still prevalent in society as part of “outdated” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.” The prosecutor said to Dogan: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole disturbing cultural framework that you are upholding.” Biographical Details Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five moved to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his parent was abusive and that the defendant began smoking cannabis at the age of ten. When Dogan was 17 he was caught by police for dealing drugs and his parent evicted him the residence. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a builder but had undergone periods of being unhoused. He was wed and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had repeated extramarital activities beyond their marriage. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had told a evaluator that annually he sought transactional encounters on his special day. His lawyers stated to the court he had joint inflammation triggered by the stress of the original case.