🔗 Share this article France's Appeal Tribunal Increases Sentence for Gisèle Pelicot Assailant A defendant was convicted on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and has had his incarceration period raised to 10 years. Appeal Trial Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a appeal hearing this week at the appeals court in Nîmes. A panel of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her home in Provence in the morning of 29 June 2019. The evidence showed that the accused, a family man, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, the husband, in an internet forum called “without her consent”, where Pelicot was seeking men to visit his house to assault his wife after he had sedated her into a comatose state. “We hope the jury will say loud and clear that in this society, human rights are also rights of women – that consent is personal, not transferred,” declared the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is obtained directly and not by proxy from a husband.” Background The ex-husband, one of the worst sex offenders in modern French history, was handed a sentence to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his spouse and bringing in dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a duration of nearly ten years of their marriage. Fifty other men were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to contest his sentence. He was initially given a sentence to nine years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to a decade. The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any responsibility”. Evidence Presented The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then traveled an hour from his town in Provence to assault the victim, after telling his wife he was going out, the court heard. Pelicot, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the retrial, informed the court that the accused had known his wife had been “sedated” and he said to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her consent.” The proceedings became a focus point for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to assert he was blameless and had not committed rape, contending that because the victim's husband had invited him into the room, his behavior had been permissible. The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s unresponsive form, unconscious and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a smiling the perpetrator performed assault repeatedly over a duration of what authorities reported was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at peril of death by suffocation. The prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed. Dogan's Claims The defendant told the court the recordings were simply “sexual encounters” and denied it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He told the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the home, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” the accused informed the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.” Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to hurt that woman.” Pelicot's Words Gisèle Pelicot, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters assembled to stand with her, said to Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you violated me? It is illegal to rape an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you agreement? At no time.” The victim, seventy-two, became an global icon after she waived her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.” State's Argument Sie, addressing the victim in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The public is maybe in the midst of that, possibly motivated by the societal understanding resulting from the exposure of your case.” The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how societal tolerance was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “male domination”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.” Sie told the defendant: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a person, it’s an entire disturbing societal structure that you are endorsing.” Defendant's Background The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five relocated to France, where his father worked as a building manager. The testimony revealed that his parent was violent and that Dogan began using drugs aged ten. When he was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for dealing drugs and his father forced him to leave the residence. He was incarcerated in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had undergone periods of living on the streets. He was married and had a son with a genetic condition, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The court heard his wife did not know he had regular extramarital activities outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his stressful life. Dogan had informed a evaluator that once a year he sought transactional encounters on his special day. His lawyers stated to the court he had arthritis caused by the pressure of the initial proceedings.