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A defendant was declared guilty on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her husband – and received his prison sentence increased to ten years.

Retrial Proceedings

The defendant, 44, an unemployed builder, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a appeal hearing this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A jury of four women and five men, joined by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping the victim in her bedroom in southern France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a married father, made contact with the victim's spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum named “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was seeking men to come to his home to assault his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

We trust the jury will say loud and clear that in this society, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that consent is personal, not transferred,” said the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Consent is obtained personally and not through someone else from a husband.”

Context

The ex-husband, one of the worst sex offenders in recent French history, was sentenced to two decades in prison last year for sedating his then wife and bringing in numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a duration of almost a decade of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found convicted in a notable trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to challenge his verdict. He was first handed a term to 9 years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to a decade.

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

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his town in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was leaving, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the hearing, told the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he told to men by phone: “I want someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The courtroom became a focus point for a broader debate on sexual violence norms in society as the defendant continued to assert he was blameless and had not committed rape, contending that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the room, his actions had been permissible.

The jury in the higher court was presented with visual proof of the victim's unresponsive form, sedated and breathing heavily in a deep sleep, while a smiling the perpetrator engaged in violation multiple times over a duration of what investigators stated was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan informed the court the videos were simply “sexual encounters” and denied it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He stated the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him to the home, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan informed the court. “I continued because he convinced me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to injure that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by crowds present to support her, said to the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It is illegal to rape an unconscious woman. How could I have give you agreement? Never.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she waived her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, addressing the victim in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take accountability showed that: “The shame remains. The public is possibly in the course of that, maybe driven by the collective awareness resulting from the publication of your case.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of non-guilt showed how societal tolerance was still common in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

Sie told the defendant: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an complete sordid societal structure that you are upholding.”

Personal History

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to the nation of France, where his father worked as a building manager. The testimony revealed that his father was aggressive and that Dogan began smoking cannabis at the age of ten. When Dogan was 17 he was apprehended by authorities for selling narcotics and his father evicted him the family house. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his early 20s and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a son with a genetic condition, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The court heard his spouse did not know he had regular sexual encounters beyond their union. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had stated to a court psychologist that once a year he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His legal representatives stated to the court he had joint inflammation triggered by the stress of the original case.