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A man was declared guilty on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and received his incarceration period raised to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

The defendant, 44, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a new trial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A jury of five men and four women, joined by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her residence in Provence in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a family man, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, the husband, in an internet forum named “without her consent”, where the husband was looking for men to enter his residence to assault his wife once he had drugged her into a deep sleep.

We trust the court will affirm that in this country, human rights are also rights of women – that agreement is individual, not delegated,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, her legal representative. “Permission is received directly and not through someone else from a husband.”

Context

Dominique Pelicot, a notorious sexual predators in modern French history, was handed a sentence to 20 years in prison last year for drugging his then wife and soliciting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their union.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a notable trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to appeal against his verdict. He was initially sentenced to nine years in prison, a punishment enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any accountability”.

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his village in Provence to rape the victim, after notifying his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to briefly testify at the retrial, informed the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to abuse my wife after I’ve put her to sleep unbeknownst to her.”

The courtroom became a central issue for a broader debate on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to assert he was blameless and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the bedroom, his conduct had been justifiable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with video evidence of the victim's limp body, sedated and breathing heavily in a deep sleep, while a smiling the perpetrator committed rape 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 state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan informed the court the recordings were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was assault. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He told the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the house, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused informed the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to injure that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was cheered upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters gathered to support her, said to Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you violated me? It is unlawful to rape an unconscious woman. How could I have give you permission? Not once.”

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

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, addressing the victim in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is maybe in the course of that, perhaps motivated by the public consciousness resulting from the exposure of your ordeal.”

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

Sie said to the defendant: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole sordid cultural framework that you are upholding.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five relocated to France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his father was abusive and that Dogan began consuming marijuana at the age of ten. When he was 17 he was stopped by authorities for drug trafficking and his father forced him to leave the family house. He spent time in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had experienced periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a child with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his spouse did not know he had repeated intimate relations outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. The defendant had told a court psychologist that each year he engaged in commercial sex on his birthday. His legal representatives told the court he had arthritis caused by the anxiety of the original case.