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A defendant was convicted on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot following she was sedated by her spouse – and has had his prison sentence increased to ten years.

Retrial Proceedings

The defendant, 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, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her home in southern France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a family man, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, the husband, in an internet forum titled “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was looking for men to come to his home to assault his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a unconscious state.

“We hope the panel will declare that in this country, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that consent is personal, not given by another,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, her legal representative. “Permission is obtained directly and not via a representative from a husband.”

Case History

The husband, a notorious sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for drugging his spouse and soliciting dozens of men to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a period of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found culpable in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to challenge his conviction. He was originally handed a term to 9 years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to 10 years.

The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any blame”.

Evidence Presented

Dogan had initially sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his town in Provence to rape the victim, after informing his wife he was leaving, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to briefly testify at the hearing, told the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “incapacitated” and he told to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to violate my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The courtroom became a focus point for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to assert he was blameless and had not committed rape, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the residence, his conduct had been acceptable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown video evidence of the victim's unresponsive form, unconscious and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator committed rape on several occasions over a timeframe of what investigators stated was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at danger of death by suffocation. The state's case said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan informed the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was violation. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan informed the court. “I continued because he reassured me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to injure that woman.”

Survivor's Statement

The survivor, who was cheered upon departing the trial each day by crowds assembled to stand with her, told the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When are you going to recognise you assaulted me? It is illegal to assault an unaware woman. How could I have give you permission? At no time.”

The victim, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she waived her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The public is maybe in the midst of that, perhaps propelled by the societal understanding brought by the revelation of your case.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how societal tolerance was still prevalent in society as part of “outdated” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

Sie said to the defendant: “While you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire unpleasant social system that you are supporting.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was originated from Turkey and at the age of 5 came to France, where his father worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his father was aggressive and that Dogan began consuming marijuana at the age of 10. When he was 17 he was stopped by police for selling narcotics and his parent forced him to leave of home. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a son with a genetic condition, 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 extramarital activities outside their union. His defence said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. The defendant had told a evaluator that once a year he looked for transactional encounters on his birthday. His legal representatives stated to the court he had arthritis caused by the stress of the initial proceedings.