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A defendant has been found guilty on higher court review of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and was given his prison sentence extended to ten years.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a retrial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A jury of nine jurors, accompanied by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her bedroom in Provence in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a family man, connected with the victim's spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum called “without her consent”, where Pelicot was seeking men to visit his house to rape his wife once he had drugged her into a comatose state.

We expect the panel will affirm that in this country, human rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is individual, not given by another,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, her legal representative. “Permission is obtained directly and not by proxy from a husband.”

Background

The husband, among the most severe sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was handed a sentence to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his then wife and inviting dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a period of almost a decade of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found guilty in a notable trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to challenge his conviction. He was initially sentenced to nine years in prison, a sentence increased on Thursday to 10 years.

The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any blame”.

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had first sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his town in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was leaving, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the hearing, told the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “sedated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to assault my wife after I’ve sedated her without her knowledge.”

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

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed video evidence of the victim's limp body, sedated and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault repeatedly over a timeframe of what authorities reported was several hours. The judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by choking. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been unaware and had not given permission.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant informed the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and disputed it was assault. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He stated the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was OK. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” the accused told the court. “I continued because he convinced me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to hurt that woman.”

Victim's Response

The victim, who was supported upon leaving court each day by onlookers present to stand with her, said to the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is unlawful to assault an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you permission? Not once.”

The victim, 72, became an global icon after she waived her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

The prosecutor, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is perhaps in the course of that, possibly driven by the public consciousness brought by the publication of your case.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “outdated” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor said to the defendant: “While you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole sordid social system that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

The accused was originated from the country of Turkey and at the age of five relocated to the nation of France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his father was abusive and that Dogan began consuming marijuana at the age of 10. When he was seventeen he was stopped by police for drug trafficking and his parent kicked him out the family house. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his early 20s and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of living on the streets.

He was married and had a son with a genetic condition, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a educational cafeteria. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had repeated sexual encounters outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. The defendant had informed a evaluator that annually he engaged in commercial sex on his birthday. His attorneys told the court he had arthritis triggered by the stress of the first trial.