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An individual has been found guilty on retrial of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was sedated by her husband – and received his incarceration period extended to 10 years.

Higher Court Case

The defendant, 44, an unemployed builder, who had contested 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, accompanied by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her bedroom in southern France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a married father, made contact with the victim's then husband, the husband, in an digital platform called “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was seeking men to enter his residence to assault his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

We expect the panel will say loud and clear that in this society, human rights are also rights of women – that consent is individual, not delegated,” said the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is secured directly and not via a representative from a husband.”

Background

The husband, one of the worst sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to two decades in prison last year for incapacitating his wife at the time and soliciting dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a duration of nearly ten years of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found convicted in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to appeal against his sentence. He was originally sentenced to nine years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to ten years.

The chief prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any accountability”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had first sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his residence in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the evidence indicated.

The ex-husband, who was transported from segregation in prison to briefly provide testimony at the retrial, told the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The courtroom became a focus point for a wider discussion on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to claim he was innocent and had not engaged in violation, contending that because the victim's husband had invited him into the room, his behavior had been justifiable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s unresponsive form, comatose and breathing heavily in a deep sleep, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault on several occasions over a duration of what investigators stated was 3.5 hours. The presiding judge said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by suffocation. The prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan informed the court the footage were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was violation. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He told the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the house, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan informed the court. “I proceeded because he convinced me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to harm that woman.”

Survivor's Statement

The victim, who was cheered upon leaving court each day by crowds gathered to back her, said to the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you admit you violated me? It’s a crime to assault an unaware woman. How could I have give you consent? Never.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she gave up her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

State's Argument

The prosecutor, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's refusal to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The public is possibly in the process of that, possibly driven by the societal understanding brought by the publication of your situation.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “male domination”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

The prosecutor said to Dogan: “For as much as you reject it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire disturbing cultural framework that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five relocated to the nation of France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his father was abusive and that Dogan began smoking cannabis at the age of ten. When he was 17 he was stopped by authorities for dealing drugs and his parent kicked him out of home. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his twenties and had worked as a builder but had experienced periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a son with special needs, 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 frequent extramarital activities outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his stressful life. Dogan had stated to a evaluator that each year he engaged in commercial sex on his special day. His lawyers told the court he had arthritis resulting from the stress of the original case.