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A man was declared guilty on appeal of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her husband – and received his incarceration period increased to ten years.

Retrial Proceedings

The defendant, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had appealed his first conviction last year, faced a retrial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A jury of five men and four women, accompanied by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her home in the south of France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a family man, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, the husband, in an online chatroom titled “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was seeking men to visit his house to rape his wife after he had drugged her into a comatose state.

We trust the court will affirm that in this society, human rights are also rights of women – that consent is individual, not delegated,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is received personally and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Context

The ex-husband, among the most severe sexual predators in modern French history, was given a prison term to two decades in prison last year for incapacitating his wife at the time and soliciting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the town of Mazan over a duration of nearly ten years of their union.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to appeal against his sentence. He was originally handed a term to nine years in prison, a sentence enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any responsibility”.

Evidence Presented

Dogan had first sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his village in Provence to rape the victim, after informing his wife he was leaving, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to briefly provide testimony at the appeal trial, told the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse 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 the defendant continued to claim he was blameless and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the room, his conduct had been permissible.

The jury in the higher court was shown visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s unresponsive form, comatose and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a smiling the perpetrator engaged in violation repeatedly over a timeframe of what investigators stated was three and a half hours. The judge said she had been at risk of death by suffocation. The prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan informed the court the recordings were simply “sex scenes” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He declared the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” the accused told the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

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

Survivor's Statement

The victim, who was applauded upon leaving court each day by crowds present to stand with her, told the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you violated me? It is illegal to assault an unconscious woman. How could I have give you permission? Never.”

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

Prosecutor's Remarks

The prosecutor, speaking to the victim in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take responsibility showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The community is perhaps in the process of that, possibly propelled by the societal understanding brought by the exposure of your case.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a culture of consent.”

The prosecutor addressed the defendant: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an complete disturbing social system that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to the nation of France, where his father worked as a building manager. The court heard that his father was violent and that the defendant began consuming marijuana at the age of ten. When he was 17 he was caught by authorities for dealing drugs and his father forced him to leave the residence. He served time in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had repeated intimate relations outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his stressful life. The defendant had informed a evaluator that once a year he looked for paid sex on his birthday. His attorneys told the court he had arthritis caused by the stress of the original case.