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A defendant was convicted on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband – and was given his incarceration period increased to a decade.

Higher Court Case

The defendant, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a retrial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A panel of nine jurors, joined by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her bedroom in the south of France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The testimony revealed that the accused, a family man, made contact with the victim's then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom titled “without her consent”, where Pelicot was looking for men to visit his house to rape his wife after he had sedated her into a deep sleep.

“We hope the jury will declare that in this country, human rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is personal, not given by another,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, her legal representative. “Consent is received directly and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Background

Dominique Pelicot, among the most severe sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to two decades in prison last year for sedating his then wife and soliciting dozens of men to rape her in her home in the town of Mazan over a period of almost a decade of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to appeal against his verdict. He was first given a sentence to nine years in prison, a punishment enhanced on Thursday to ten years.

The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any accountability”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had initially sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his town in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the hearing, told the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “incapacitated” and he told to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve sedated her without her knowledge.”

The proceedings became a central issue for a broader debate on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to claim he was innocent and had not engaged in violation, stating that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the residence, his conduct had been justifiable.

The panel in the higher court was shown visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, sedated and snoring in a comatose state, while a smiling the perpetrator performed assault repeatedly over a timeframe of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state's case said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not given permission.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan stated to the court the footage were simply “sexual encounters” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He declared the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him to the house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan told the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to injure that lady.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was cheered upon leaving court each day by supporters gathered to support her, addressed the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It’s a crime to rape an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you agreement? At no time.”

The victim, seventy-two, 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

Sie, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's failure to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is maybe in the course of that, possibly motivated by the collective awareness brought by the revelation of your situation.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still common in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

Sie said to Dogan: “For as much as you reject it, it’s not just a person, it’s an complete unpleasant cultural framework that you are supporting.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five came to France, where his father worked as a concierge. The evidence indicated that his parent was violent and that the defendant began consuming marijuana at the age of ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was apprehended by police for selling narcotics and his parent forced him to leave of home. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had undergone periods of living on the streets.

He was wed and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a educational cafeteria. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had frequent intimate relations outside their marriage. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his stressful life. Dogan had informed a mental health expert that annually he looked for paid sex on his special day. His attorneys stated to the court he had arthritis resulting from the anxiety of the first trial.