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An individual was convicted on retrial of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and received his prison sentence raised to a decade.

Appeal Trial

The defendant, 44, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a retrial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of five men and four women, accompanied by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her residence in southern France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that Dogan, a married father, connected with the victim's spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom titled “without her consent”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to come to his home to assault his wife after he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

We trust the panel will affirm that in this nation, human rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is individual, not given by another,” said the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is secured personally and not via a representative from a husband.”

Background

The husband, a notorious sex offenders in modern French history, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for drugging his then wife and bringing in dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a period of almost a decade of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found convicted in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to challenge his conviction. He was first handed a term to 9 years in prison, a sentence enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

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

Courtroom Details

Dogan had first sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his residence in the region to rape the victim, after telling his wife he was leaving, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to briefly provide testimony at the appeal trial, stated to the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to assault my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The proceedings became a focus point for a broader debate on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to say he was not guilty and had not engaged in violation, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the room, his actions had been acceptable.

The panel in the higher court was shown recorded footage of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, sedated and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation repeatedly over a timeframe of what investigators stated was several hours. The court official said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant told the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and denied it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He declared the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the home, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused told the court. “I proceeded because he persuaded me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to injure that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

The victim, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers present to stand with her, addressed Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you assaulted me? It is illegal to assault an unconscious woman. When did I ever give you agreement? Never.”

The victim, 72, became an global icon after she relinquished her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, turning to the victim in court, said Dogan’s failure to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. The community is perhaps in the process of that, possibly driven by the public consciousness brought by the publication of your situation.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence 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 ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor said to the defendant: “While you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole disturbing social system that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 came to France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The court heard that his father was violent and that Dogan began using drugs at the age of ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for selling narcotics and his father kicked him out the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his early 20s and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a son with special needs, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had regular intimate relations outside their union. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. The defendant had informed a court psychologist that annually he sought commercial sex on his birthday. His legal representatives told the court he had arthritis triggered by the pressure of the first trial.