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A man was convicted on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot following she was sedated by her then-husband – and was given his jail term extended to a decade.

Higher Court Case

Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had contested his first conviction last year, experienced a retrial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A panel of nine jurors, accompanied by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her home in the south of France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a family man, made contact with the victim's husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom called “without her knowledge”, where the husband was looking for men to come to his home to rape his wife once he had sedated her into a comatose state.

We expect the court will declare that in this nation, human rights are also women’s rights – that permission is personal, not delegated,” declared the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Consent is obtained personally and not through someone else from a husband.”

Context

The husband, one of the worst sex offenders in recent French history, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and soliciting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a duration of nearly ten years of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to challenge his conviction. He was originally handed a term to nine years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to 10 years.

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

Courtroom Details

The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then driven an hour from his village in the region to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the evidence indicated.

The ex-husband, who was brought from segregation in prison to briefly provide testimony at the appeal trial, informed the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he told to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve sedated her unbeknownst to her.”

The trial became a central issue for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to assert he was innocent and had not committed rape, stating that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the residence, his conduct had been justifiable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s unresponsive form, comatose and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator committed rape on several occasions over a timeframe of what police said was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by suffocation. The prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unaware and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan stated to the court the recordings were simply “sexual encounters” and denied it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He told 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 influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan stated to the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to hurt that woman.”

Survivor's Statement

The survivor, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by crowds assembled to stand with her, addressed the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you acknowledge you raped me? It is illegal to rape an incapacitated woman. How could I have give you permission? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 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.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take accountability showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The community is possibly in the midst of that, maybe propelled by the public consciousness brought by the publication of your situation.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how societal tolerance was still prevalent in society as part of “archaic” forms of “male domination”. He said: “It is imperative to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

Sie told the defendant: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole unpleasant cultural framework that you are endorsing.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was originated from Turkey and at the age of five moved to the nation of France, where his father worked as a building manager. The court heard that his parent was violent and that the defendant began smoking cannabis at the age of ten. When Dogan was 17 he was stopped by police for selling narcotics and his father kicked him out the residence. He spent time in prison for trafficking in his early 20s and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the primary guardian for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had frequent intimate relations beyond their marriage. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. Dogan had informed a court psychologist that once a year he sought commercial sex on his special day. His legal representatives stated to the court he had arthritis caused by the anxiety of the first trial.