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A man was convicted on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her husband – and received his prison sentence increased to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his first conviction last year, experienced a appeal hearing this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A jury of nine jurors, joined by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping the victim in her home in the south of France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a family man, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum named “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was seeking men to visit his house to assault his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a deep sleep.

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

Context

Dominique Pelicot, one of the worst sex offenders in modern French history, was given a prison term to two decades in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and bringing in dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a duration of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to appeal against his sentence. He was initially sentenced to 9 years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to 10 years.

The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any blame”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had initially sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his residence in Provence to assault the victim, after informing his wife he was leaving, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the appeal trial, told the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to assault my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”

The trial became a central issue for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to say he was blameless and had not committed rape, stating that because the victim's husband had invited him into the bedroom, his behavior had been justifiable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with recorded footage of the victim's unresponsive form, comatose and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator committed rape repeatedly over a timeframe of what police said was three and a half hours. The judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The state's case said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan told the court the videos were simply “sex scenes” and denied it was violation. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. He declared 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 manipulated by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan informed the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

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

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon leaving court each day by onlookers assembled to stand with her, addressed the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It is unlawful to rape an unconscious woman. How could I have give you permission? Not once.”

The victim, 72, became an international feminist hero after she relinquished her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

The prosecutor, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's failure to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is perhaps in the midst of that, perhaps motivated by the societal understanding spurred by the publication of your situation.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “outdated” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

Sie said to Dogan: “For as much as you reject it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an complete unpleasant societal structure that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 came to the nation of France, where his father worked as a concierge. The court heard that his parent was aggressive and that the defendant began using drugs aged ten. When Dogan was 17 he was apprehended by police for drug trafficking and his parent kicked him out of home. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a laborer but had faced periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a child with special needs, who he was the primary guardian for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The court heard his spouse did not know he had repeated intimate relations outside their marriage. His defence said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. The defendant had told a court psychologist that annually he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His lawyers stated to the court he had joint inflammation caused by the stress of the first trial.