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A defendant has been found guilty on appeal of raping Gisele Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her husband – and was given his jail term raised to 10 years.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his first conviction last year, experienced a appeal hearing 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 Pelicot in her residence in the south of France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a married father, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom called “without her consent”, where the husband was looking for men to enter his residence to rape his wife once he had sedated her into a deep sleep.

We trust the court will affirm that in this society, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that consent is personal, not delegated,” declared the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is secured directly and not via a representative from a husband.”

Case History

The husband, one of the worst sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for drugging his wife at the time and inviting dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a period of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found convicted in a notable trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to contest his verdict. He was first sentenced to 9 years in prison, a sentence raised on Thursday to a decade.

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

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his village in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was transported from segregation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the appeal trial, informed the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “incapacitated” and he told to men by phone: “I want someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her without her knowledge.”

The trial became a key topic for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to claim he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, stating that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the residence, his conduct had been acceptable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown video evidence of the victim's limp body, unconscious and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a smiling the perpetrator engaged in violation repeatedly over a period of what authorities reported was 3.5 hours. The judge said she had been at risk of death by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unaware and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan told the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and disputed it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He stated the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan told the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to hurt that lady.”

Pelicot's Words

The victim, who was cheered upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters assembled to back her, said to the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It’s a crime to assault an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you consent? At no time.”

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: “The shame should shift.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. The community is perhaps in the midst of that, possibly driven by the collective awareness resulting from the revelation of your situation.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how societal tolerance was still widespread in society as part of “archaic” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor said to the defendant: “As long as you reject it, it’s not just a person, it’s an entire sordid cultural framework that you are endorsing.”

Personal History

The accused was originated from Turkey and at the age of 5 came to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The court heard that his parent was aggressive and that Dogan began smoking cannabis aged 10. When Dogan was 17 he was stopped by authorities for selling narcotics and his father evicted him the residence. He served time in prison for drug dealing in his young adulthood and had worked as a builder but had experienced periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a son with a genetic condition, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had repeated intimate relations outside their union. His defence said this was his way of coping with his stressful life. Dogan had told a evaluator that once a year he engaged in commercial sex on his birthday. His lawyers told the court he had joint inflammation caused by the pressure of the original case.