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An individual has been found guilty on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her then-husband – and has had his prison sentence raised to ten years.

Appeal Trial

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 jury of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her home in southern France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a married father, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, the husband, in an online chatroom called “without her consent”, where the husband was looking for men to visit his house to assault his wife after he had drugged her into a deep sleep.

We expect the panel will say loud and clear that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that agreement is individual, not transferred,” said the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Permission is secured directly and not by proxy from a husband.”

Context

The husband, one of the worst sexual predators in modern French history, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for drugging his then wife and inviting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the community of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to contest his sentence. He was originally sentenced to 9 years in prison, a sentence raised on Thursday to a decade.

The chief prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any blame”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had initially sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his village in Provence to assault the victim, after informing his wife he was leaving, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was brought from segregation in prison to briefly provide testimony at the retrial, informed the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “sedated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep unbeknownst to her.”

The courtroom became a key topic for a broader debate on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to claim he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the residence, his actions had been acceptable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was shown video evidence of the victim's unconscious figure, unconscious and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a smiling Dogan performed assault multiple times 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 doubt that she had been incapacitated and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan told the court the recordings were simply “sexual encounters” and denied it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He stated the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” the accused told the court. “I continued because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to hurt that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters present to stand with her, said to the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you assaulted me? It is illegal to rape an incapacitated woman. How could I have give you consent? Never.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she waived her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

State's Argument

Sie, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is perhaps in the course of that, maybe motivated by the collective awareness spurred by the revelation of your case.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how rape culture was still prevalent in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

Sie addressed Dogan: “As long as you reject it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire disturbing cultural framework that you are endorsing.”

Biographical Details

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The testimony revealed that his parent was violent and that the defendant began smoking cannabis aged 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for selling narcotics and his parent forced him to leave the family house. He served time in prison for trafficking in his early 20s and had worked as a laborer but had experienced periods of living on the streets.

He was married and had a child with special needs, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had frequent extramarital activities beyond their marriage. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. The defendant had informed a evaluator that annually he engaged in transactional encounters on his special day. His legal representatives stated to the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the stress of the original case.