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A defendant was convicted on higher court review of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her husband – and received his incarceration period extended to ten years.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a retrial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A jury of nine jurors, joined by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping the victim in her residence in Provence in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a family man, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom called “without her consent”, where Pelicot was looking for men to enter his residence to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

We trust the court will say loud and clear that in this society, human rights are also rights of women – that permission is individual, not delegated,” declared the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is obtained directly and not by proxy from a husband.”

Background

The ex-husband, a notorious sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to two decades in prison last year for drugging his wife at the time and bringing in numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the community of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found culpable in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to contest his sentence. He was first sentenced to nine years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to 10 years.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any responsibility”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then driven an hour from his town in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was going out, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was brought from segregation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the retrial, told the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “sedated” and he told to men by phone: “I seek someone to violate my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious unbeknownst to her.”

The courtroom became a key topic for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to assert he was innocent and had not engaged in violation, stating that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the bedroom, his behavior had been permissible.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was shown video evidence of the victim's unresponsive form, comatose and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a smiling Dogan committed rape repeatedly over a period of what authorities reported was 3.5 hours. The judge said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unaware and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant stated to the court the recordings were simply “sex scenes” and denied it was violation. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He told the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the home, and therefore it was OK. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan told the court. “I continued because he reassured me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to harm that lady.”

Survivor's Statement

The survivor, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by onlookers present to support her, addressed the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you raped me? It’s a crime to assault an incapacitated woman. How could I have give you consent? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an international feminist hero after she relinquished her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

State's Argument

The prosecutor, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's failure to take responsibility showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. Society is maybe in the process of that, perhaps driven by the societal understanding brought by the publication of your ordeal.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “It is imperative to change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor said to Dogan: “As long as you reject it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole unpleasant societal structure that you are supporting.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was originated from the country of Turkey and at the age of five relocated to France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his parent was abusive and that the defendant began smoking cannabis aged 10. When Dogan was 17 he was caught by police for drug trafficking and his parent evicted him of home. He served time in prison for trafficking in his early 20s and had worked as a builder but had undergone periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his spouse did not know he had repeated sexual encounters beyond their union. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. The defendant had informed a mental health expert that annually he sought paid sex on his special day. His lawyers stated to the court he had joint inflammation caused by the anxiety of the initial proceedings.