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An individual has been found guilty on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and was given his prison sentence extended to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

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

A panel of four women and five men, joined by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her residence in Provence in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that Dogan, a family man, connected with the victim's husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform named “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was looking for men to visit his house to rape his wife once he had sedated her into a comatose state.

We expect the jury will affirm that in this society, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that consent is individual, not delegated,” declared the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Permission is obtained personally and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Background

The ex-husband, one of the worst sex offenders in recent French history, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and soliciting dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a duration of almost a decade of their union.

Fifty other men were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to contest his verdict. He was initially handed a term to nine years in prison, a punishment raised on Thursday to a decade.

The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any responsibility”.

Evidence Presented

Dogan had first sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his residence in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was leaving, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was transported from segregation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the hearing, informed the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to violate my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The trial became a focus point for a wider discussion on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to assert he was innocent and had not committed rape, stating that because the victim's husband had invited him into the bedroom, his conduct had been justifiable.

The panel in the higher court was shown recorded footage of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, sedated and snoring in a comatose state, while a grinning Dogan engaged in violation repeatedly over a timeframe of what investigators stated was several hours. The judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been unaware and had not given permission.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan told the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was violation. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the home, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” the accused told the court. “I carried on because he reassured me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to harm that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by crowds present to support her, told the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It’s a crime to rape an unaware woman. At what point did I give you agreement? At no time.”

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

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, turning to the victim in court, said the defendant's refusal to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. The community is maybe in the midst of that, maybe driven by the societal understanding spurred by the revelation of your ordeal.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how societal tolerance was still common in society as part of “archaic” forms of “male domination”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor said to the defendant: “While you reject it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole unpleasant social system that you are supporting.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five relocated to the nation of France, where his father worked as a concierge. The court heard that his father was violent and that Dogan began consuming marijuana at the age of ten. When he was 17 he was apprehended by police for selling narcotics and his father evicted him of home. He was incarcerated in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had experienced periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had frequent sexual encounters outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. Dogan had stated to a mental health expert that annually he engaged in paid sex on his birthday. His legal representatives told the court he had a medical condition caused by the anxiety of the first trial.