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A man was declared guilty on higher court review of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband – and was given his prison sentence increased to a decade.

Appeal Trial

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

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

The testimony revealed that the accused, a married father, made contact with the victim's then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom titled “without her consent”, where Pelicot was looking for men to enter his residence to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

We trust the panel will declare that in this nation, human rights are also women’s rights – that consent is personal, not delegated,” stated the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is received directly and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Context

Dominique Pelicot, among the most severe sexual predators in recent French history, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for drugging his then wife and soliciting dozens of men to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a span of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Numerous other individuals were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to contest his sentence. He was initially handed a term to 9 years in prison, a sentence increased on Thursday to ten years.

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

Courtroom Details

Dogan had first sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his village in the region to rape the victim, after notifying his wife he was going out, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was brought from segregation in prison to briefly give evidence at the retrial, informed the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “incapacitated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her unbeknownst to her.”

The trial became a focus point for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to assert he was not guilty and had not engaged in violation, contending that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the residence, his conduct had been permissible.

The panel in the higher court was shown visual proof of the victim's unresponsive form, comatose and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a smiling Dogan committed rape repeatedly over a duration of what police said was several hours. The court official said she had been at peril of death by choking. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not given permission.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan stated to the court the recordings were simply “sexual encounters” and disputed 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 invited him to the home, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” the accused told the court. “I continued because he convinced me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to hurt that lady.”

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon leaving court each day by onlookers assembled to stand with her, told Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It is illegal to rape an unconscious woman. How could I have give you agreement? Never.”

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

Legal Commentary

Sie, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. The public is maybe in the course of that, maybe propelled by the collective awareness spurred by the publication of your case.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

Sie told the defendant: “While you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an complete unpleasant societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 came to France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his father was violent and that Dogan began smoking cannabis at the age of 10. When he was seventeen he was stopped by police for drug trafficking and his parent forced him to leave of home. He spent time in prison for trafficking in his early 20s and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a educational cafeteria. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had repeated sexual encounters outside their union. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had stated to a evaluator that once a year he engaged in commercial sex on his birthday. His attorneys stated to the court he had a medical condition triggered by the anxiety of the first trial.