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An individual was convicted on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her husband – and was given his prison sentence extended to ten years.

Appeal Trial

Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had contested his first conviction last year, underwent a retrial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A panel of nine jurors, accompanied by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her bedroom in Provence in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a family man, connected with the victim's then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum titled “without her consent”, where Pelicot was looking for men to visit his house to rape his wife once he had drugged her into a deep sleep.

“We hope the court will affirm that in this country, human rights are also rights of women – that permission is individual, not transferred,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is secured directly and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Context

Dominique Pelicot, among the most severe sexual predators in modern French history, was handed a sentence to 20 years in prison last year for drugging his then wife and soliciting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to challenge his conviction. He was initially sentenced to 9 years in prison, a punishment enhanced on Thursday to ten years.

The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any blame”.

Testimony and Proof

Dogan had initially sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his town in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was transported from segregation in prison to briefly provide testimony at the hearing, told the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “incapacitated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.”

The trial became a focus point for a broader debate on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to claim he was not guilty and had not engaged in violation, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the bedroom, his behavior had been acceptable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed recorded footage of the victim's unresponsive form, comatose and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning Dogan committed rape on several occasions over a timeframe of what investigators stated was three and a half hours. The judge said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been incapacitated and had not consented.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant informed the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He told the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the residence, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” Dogan told the court. “I continued because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to hurt that woman.”

Victim's Response

The victim, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers gathered to stand with her, addressed Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When are you going to recognise you violated me? It is unlawful to assault an unaware woman. How could I have give you agreement? At no time.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she relinquished her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, speaking to the victim in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. The community is maybe in the course of that, maybe motivated by the public consciousness brought by the revelation of your ordeal.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “outdated” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

Sie said to Dogan: “While you deny it, it’s not just a person, it’s an complete sordid societal structure that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The court heard that his parent was abusive and that Dogan began smoking cannabis aged ten. When he was seventeen he was caught by police for drug trafficking and his parent evicted him the family house. He served time in prison for narcotics offenses in his early 20s and had worked as a construction worker but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a son with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his wife did not know he had frequent extramarital activities outside their union. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his stressful life. Dogan had told a evaluator that once a year he looked for transactional encounters on his special day. His attorneys told the court he had arthritis triggered by the anxiety of the initial proceedings.