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A defendant was convicted on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was sedated by her husband – and received his prison sentence increased to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

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

A jury of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her bedroom in the south of France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a family man, made contact with the victim's husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform titled “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was looking for men to come to his home to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

We expect the court will affirm that in this society, human rights are also women’s rights – that consent is personal, not delegated,” stated the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Consent is secured personally and not via a representative from a husband.”

Background

The husband, among the most severe sex offenders in modern French history, was given a prison term to two decades in prison last year for sedating his spouse and bringing in numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a duration of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to contest his conviction. He was first given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a sentence enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any responsibility”.

Courtroom Details

The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his town in Provence to rape the victim, after notifying his wife he was leaving, the evidence indicated.

The ex-husband, who was brought from segregation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the appeal trial, told the court that the accused had known his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep unbeknownst to her.”

The proceedings became a key topic for a larger conversation on sexual violence norms in society as the defendant continued to claim he was blameless and had not committed rape, arguing that because the victim's husband had invited him into the room, his actions had been permissible.

The panel in the higher court was presented with visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, comatose and snoring in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault repeatedly over a duration of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The judge said she had been at risk of death by choking. The prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan stated to the court the recordings were simply “sexual encounters” and denied it was violation. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not assault. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” Dogan informed the court. “I proceeded because he convinced me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to hurt that lady.”

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon leaving court each day by crowds assembled to support her, addressed the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you raped me? It’s a crime to rape an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you permission? Never.”

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

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's failure to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. Society is maybe in the process of that, maybe driven by the societal understanding brought by the revelation of your ordeal.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor addressed Dogan: “For as much as you reject it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole sordid cultural framework that you are upholding.”

Personal History

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of France, where his father worked as a building manager. The testimony revealed that his father was violent and that the defendant began consuming marijuana aged ten. When he was seventeen he was stopped by police for dealing drugs and his father evicted him of home. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his twenties 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 wife worked in a school canteen. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had frequent sexual encounters beyond their union. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. The defendant had informed a mental health expert that each year he sought transactional encounters on his special day. His attorneys told the court he had a medical condition triggered by the pressure of the original case.