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An individual was convicted on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and received his jail term raised to 10 years.

Appeal Trial

The defendant, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict 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, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her residence in southern France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that Dogan, a family man, made contact with the victim's then husband, the husband, in an online chatroom called “without her consent”, where the husband was seeking men to come to his home to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

“We hope the court will declare that in this society, human rights are also rights of women – that consent is personal, not transferred,” said the victim's attorney, her legal representative. “Agreement is secured directly and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Background

Dominique Pelicot, a notorious sexual predators in recent French history, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and soliciting numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the town of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found guilty in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to appeal against his conviction. He was first sentenced to nine years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to a decade.

The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any blame”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had initially sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his town in the region to assault the victim, after notifying his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily testify at the appeal trial, stated to the court that the accused had known his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her without her knowledge.”

The trial became a key topic for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to assert he was not guilty and had not committed rape, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the room, his conduct had been justifiable.

The panel in the higher court was presented with video evidence of the victim's unconscious figure, sedated and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning Dogan performed assault multiple times over a timeframe of what investigators stated was three and a half hours. The presiding judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unaware and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

The defendant informed the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was assault. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He stated the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I tried to halt,” the accused stated to the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to injure that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was cheered upon leaving court each day by supporters present to support her, said to the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is illegal to assault an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you permission? Never.”

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

State's Argument

The prosecutor, turning to the victim in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is perhaps in the course of that, possibly motivated by the collective awareness spurred by the revelation of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how normalized violence was still common in society as part of “outdated” forms of “male domination”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor said to Dogan: “For as much as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire unpleasant social system that you are endorsing.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was originated from Turkey and at the age of five relocated to France, where his father worked as a building manager. The testimony revealed that his father was abusive and that Dogan began smoking cannabis at the age of ten. When he was 17 he was apprehended by police for selling narcotics and his father kicked him out the family house. He served time in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a builder but had experienced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver 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 defence said this was his method of dealing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had stated to a evaluator that annually he sought paid sex on his special day. His lawyers stated to the court he had joint inflammation caused by the pressure of the original case.