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A defendant was declared guilty on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and was given his jail term increased to ten years.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his first conviction last year, experienced a new trial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A jury of five men and four women, joined by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her home in the south of France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a married father, made contact with the victim's husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform called “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was seeking men to visit his house to rape his wife once he had sedated her into a deep sleep.

We expect the court will declare that in this country, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that permission is individual, not transferred,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is received directly and not via a representative from a husband.”

Context

The husband, one of the worst sex offenders in modern French history, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for incapacitating his wife at the time and bringing in numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a span of nearly ten years of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to challenge his sentence. He was originally handed a term to nine years in prison, a sentence raised on Thursday to ten years.

The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any responsibility”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had first sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his town in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily testify at the hearing, told the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to assault my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her consent.”

The courtroom became a key topic for a broader debate on sexual violence norms in society as the defendant continued to say he was innocent and had not committed rape, stating that because the victim's husband had invited him into the residence, his conduct had been permissible.

The jury in the higher court was presented with recorded footage of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, comatose and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation repeatedly over a period of what police said was 3.5 hours. The judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The state's case said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan told the court the footage were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He declared the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the home, and therefore it was OK. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan told the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to hurt that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

The victim, who was supported upon leaving court each day by onlookers present to back her, said to the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When are you going to recognise you assaulted me? It’s a crime to rape an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you agreement? Never.”

The victim, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she relinquished her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. The public is maybe in the midst of that, maybe driven by the public consciousness brought by the publication of your situation.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how societal tolerance was still prevalent in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “It is imperative to change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

Sie told Dogan: “While you reject it, it’s not just a person, it’s an entire sordid societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Personal History

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his father was violent and that Dogan began consuming marijuana aged ten. When he was seventeen he was caught by authorities for selling narcotics and his parent evicted him of home. He spent time in prison for drug dealing in his young adulthood and had worked as a construction worker but had faced periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a child with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had repeated extramarital activities outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. Dogan had stated to a evaluator that annually he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His attorneys told the court he had a medical condition caused by the anxiety of the original case.