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An individual has been found guilty on appeal of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was sedated by her then-husband – and was given his prison sentence increased to a decade.

Higher Court Case

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

A panel of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her home in Provence in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a family man, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom titled “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was looking for men to come to his home to rape his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

We expect the court will declare that in this country, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is individual, not given by another,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is obtained personally and not via a representative from a husband.”

Context

The husband, among the most severe sexual predators in modern French history, was given a prison term to two decades in prison last year for sedating his then wife and inviting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the town of Mazan over a duration of almost a decade of their marriage.

Numerous other individuals were found culpable in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to appeal against his verdict. He was originally sentenced to 9 years in prison, a sentence increased on Thursday to a decade.

The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any accountability”.

Evidence Presented

Dogan had first sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his village in the region to rape the victim, after informing his wife he was going out, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was transported from isolation in prison to briefly testify at the retrial, informed the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “sedated” and he told to men by phone: “I want someone to abuse my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious unbeknownst to her.”

The proceedings became a focus point for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to say he was not guilty and had not committed rape, stating that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the room, his actions had been permissible.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, comatose and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a smiling the perpetrator engaged in violation on several occasions over a period of what investigators stated was several hours. The judge said she had been at danger of death by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been incapacitated and had not consented.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan told the court the footage were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He told the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the home, and therefore it was OK. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” the accused told the court. “I carried on because he reassured me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to harm that lady.”

Pelicot's Words

The victim, who was supported upon leaving court each day by crowds assembled to support her, told the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you admit you raped me? It is unlawful to assault an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you consent? Not once.”

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

State's Argument

Sie, turning to the victim in court, said the defendant's failure to take blame showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The community is maybe in the process of that, maybe motivated by the collective awareness brought by the revelation of your case.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how societal tolerance was still prevalent in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “male domination”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

The prosecutor told Dogan: “As long as you reject it, it’s not just a person, it’s an complete sordid cultural framework that you are endorsing.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five relocated to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The evidence indicated that his father was abusive and that Dogan began using drugs at the age of 10. When he was seventeen he was caught by authorities for selling narcotics and his parent forced him to leave the residence. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his early 20s and had worked as a laborer but had faced periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a son with a genetic condition, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a educational cafeteria. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had regular extramarital activities outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had informed a evaluator that each year he looked for paid sex on his special day. His attorneys told the court he had a medical condition caused by the anxiety of the initial proceedings.