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A defendant was convicted on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband – and received his incarceration period extended to 10 years.

Higher Court Case

Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a new trial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A jury of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her bedroom in Provence in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that Dogan, a married father, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom titled “without her consent”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to visit his house to rape his wife after he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

“We hope the court will say loud and clear that in this society, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is personal, not given by another,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Consent is obtained directly and not by proxy from a husband.”

Case History

Dominique Pelicot, one of the worst sexual predators in recent French history, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for incapacitating his then wife and inviting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a duration of almost a decade of their marriage.

Numerous other individuals were found convicted in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to appeal against his sentence. He was first given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a punishment enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any accountability”.

Courtroom Details

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then traveled an hour from his residence in the region to rape the victim, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was transported from isolation in prison to briefly testify at the hearing, told the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “sedated” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious unbeknownst to her.”

The courtroom became a key topic for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to assert he was innocent and had not committed rape, stating that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the residence, his conduct had been acceptable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed video evidence of the victim's unresponsive form, sedated and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a smiling the perpetrator engaged in violation on several occasions over a duration of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at risk of death by suffocation. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan told the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and disputed it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He stated the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the residence, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan stated to the court. “I proceeded because he persuaded me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to hurt that individual.”

Survivor's Statement

The victim, who was cheered upon departing the trial each day by crowds assembled to back her, told the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It’s a crime to rape an unaware woman. How could I have give you agreement? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an symbol of resistance after she gave up her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

State's Argument

Sie, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s failure to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is possibly in the course of that, maybe motivated by the public consciousness resulting from the revelation of your ordeal.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how rape culture was still prevalent in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor told Dogan: “As long as you reject it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole sordid societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Personal History

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The court heard that his parent was aggressive and that Dogan began consuming marijuana at the age of 10. When he was seventeen he was caught by police for drug trafficking and his parent evicted him the residence. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had undergone periods of living on the streets.

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 testimony revealed his wife did not know he had frequent extramarital activities outside their marriage. His defence said this was his way of coping with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had informed a evaluator that annually he engaged in paid sex on his birthday. His lawyers told the court he had arthritis resulting from the anxiety of the original case.