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An individual was declared guilty on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot following she was sedated by her then-husband – and has had his prison sentence increased to 10 years.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a appeal hearing this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A panel of four women and five men, joined by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping the victim in her bedroom in Provence in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a family man, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform named “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to enter his residence to assault his wife after he had sedated her into a comatose state.

We trust the court will affirm that in this society, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that consent is personal, not delegated,” stated the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is obtained personally and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Context

The husband, one of the worst sexual predators in modern French history, was given a prison term to two decades in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and soliciting numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the community of Mazan over a span of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found culpable in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to challenge his verdict. He was first given a sentence 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 “completely denies to take any blame”.

Testimony and Proof

Dogan had initially sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then driven an hour from his town in Provence to rape the victim, after informing his wife he was leaving, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to briefly provide testimony at the retrial, stated to the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I seek someone to assault my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”

The courtroom became a key topic for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to say he was blameless and had not committed rape, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had welcomed him into the room, his behavior had been permissible.

The panel in the higher court was shown visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, unconscious and snoring in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault repeatedly over a timeframe of what police said was 3.5 hours. The judge said she had been at peril of death by asphyxiation. The prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan informed the court the videos were simply “sex scenes” and rejected it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him to the house, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused told the court. “I carried on because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to hurt that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon departing the trial each day by crowds present to back her, told Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It is unlawful to assault an unconscious woman. When did I ever give you agreement? Never.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an symbol of resistance after she gave up her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's failure to take blame showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. Society is possibly in the course of that, possibly driven by the societal understanding brought by the revelation of your case.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor told Dogan: “For as much as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an complete sordid cultural framework that you are supporting.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was originated from Turkey and at the age of 5 came to the nation of France, where his father worked as a concierge. The testimony revealed that his parent was violent and that Dogan began smoking cannabis at the age of 10. When he was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for dealing drugs and his parent evicted him of home. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a laborer but had faced periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his wife did not know he had frequent extramarital activities beyond their union. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had informed a evaluator that once a year he looked for paid sex on his birthday. His attorneys told the court he had arthritis resulting from the anxiety of the initial proceedings.