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A defendant was declared guilty on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot after she was sedated by her husband – and has had his prison sentence increased to 10 years.

Higher Court Case

The defendant, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a appeal hearing this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A panel of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her bedroom in southern France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that Dogan, a married father, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform called “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to enter his residence to assault his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

“We hope the jury will say loud and clear that in this country, human rights are also women’s rights – that permission is personal, not transferred,” said the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is secured directly and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Background

Dominique Pelicot, among the most severe sex offenders in recent French history, was given a prison term to two decades in prison last year for drugging his wife at the time and soliciting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the town of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to challenge his verdict. He was first handed a term to 9 years in prison, a sentence raised on Thursday to ten years.

The chief prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any responsibility”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had initially sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his residence in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was going out, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was brought from segregation in prison to briefly testify at the appeal trial, told the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I seek someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.”

The trial became a central issue for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to assert he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the bedroom, his conduct had been justifiable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed video evidence of the victim's unconscious figure, sedated and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a smiling Dogan committed rape repeatedly over a timeframe of what investigators stated was three and a half hours. The presiding judge said she had been at danger of death by suffocation. The state's case said there was no doubt that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed.

Defendant's Statements

The defendant told the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was violation. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the residence, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused stated to the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”

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

Victim's Response

The victim, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds gathered to stand with her, said to Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you admit you raped me? It is unlawful to rape an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you agreement? Not once.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she relinquished her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's failure to take accountability showed that: “The shame remains. The public is perhaps in the process of that, maybe motivated by the collective awareness spurred by the revelation of your case.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how normalized violence was still common in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “male domination”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

Sie told Dogan: “For as much as you reject it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole disturbing societal structure that you are upholding.”

Personal History

The accused was originated from the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The evidence indicated that his parent was violent and that the defendant began smoking cannabis aged ten. When he was 17 he was apprehended by authorities for selling narcotics and his parent evicted him the residence. He served time in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The court heard his spouse did not know he had frequent extramarital activities outside their union. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had told a mental health expert that once a year he engaged in transactional encounters on his birthday. His lawyers stated to the court he had a medical condition resulting from the anxiety of the original case.