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A defendant was convicted on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband – and received his jail term raised to ten years.

Appeal Trial

Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a new trial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A panel of nine jurors, accompanied by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her bedroom in Provence in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a family man, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform named “without her knowledge”, where the husband was seeking men to visit his house to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a comatose state.

We expect the court will say loud and clear that in this society, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that consent is individual, not delegated,” stated the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Consent is obtained personally and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Context

The husband, among the most severe sex offenders in modern French history, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his spouse and soliciting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found convicted in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to challenge his verdict. He was originally handed a term to 9 years in prison, a sentence enhanced on Thursday to 10 years.

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

Testimony and Proof

Dogan had first sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then traveled an hour from his village in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was leaving, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was transported from segregation in prison to briefly provide testimony at the retrial, stated to the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he told to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to abuse my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”

The proceedings became a key topic for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to assert he was innocent and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the residence, his behavior had been permissible.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was shown visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, unconscious and breathing heavily in a deep sleep, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault on several occasions over a timeframe of what police said was three and a half hours. The judge said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by choking. The prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unaware and had not consented.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant stated to the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He told the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the home, and therefore it was OK. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan stated to the court. “I continued because he convinced me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to injure that woman.”

Survivor's Statement

The victim, who was cheered upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers gathered to support her, told Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It’s a crime to assault an unaware woman. How could I have give you consent? Not once.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an global icon after she gave up her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's failure to take blame showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The community is maybe in the midst of that, perhaps driven by the collective awareness resulting from the exposure of your ordeal.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “male domination”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor said to Dogan: “For as much as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole disturbing societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Personal History

The accused was originated from Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The court heard that his father was violent and that the defendant began consuming marijuana aged ten. When he was 17 he was stopped by authorities for dealing drugs and his parent forced him to leave of home. He served time in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a builder but had experienced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The court heard his wife did not know he had repeated extramarital activities beyond their union. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had informed a court psychologist that each year he sought commercial sex on his birthday. His attorneys informed the court he had joint inflammation caused by the anxiety of the first trial.