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A defendant has been found guilty on retrial of raping Gisele Pelicot after she was sedated by her then-husband – and was given his incarceration period raised to a decade.

Appeal Trial

Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a retrial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A jury of five men and four women, joined by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her bedroom in southern France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a family man, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, the husband, in an online chatroom called “without her knowledge”, where the husband was seeking men to come to his home to assault his wife after he had sedated her into a comatose state.

We expect the court will say loud and clear that in this nation, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that permission is individual, not given by another,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is received personally and not through someone else from a husband.”

Background

Dominique Pelicot, a notorious sexual predators in recent French history, was given a prison term to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his then wife and soliciting dozens of men to rape her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a period of almost a decade of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to challenge his conviction. He was first given a sentence to nine years in prison, a sentence increased on Thursday to 10 years.

The chief prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any responsibility”.

Evidence Presented

Dogan had initially sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then traveled an hour from his town in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily give evidence at the hearing, stated to the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he told to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to violate my wife after I’ve sedated her unbeknownst to her.”

The proceedings became a central issue for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to assert he was blameless and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the bedroom, his conduct had been acceptable.

The jury in the higher court was presented with visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s unresponsive form, unconscious and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a smiling Dogan committed rape repeatedly over a timeframe of what authorities reported was several hours. The judge said she had been at risk of death by asphyxiation. The state's case said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant stated to the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and denied it was rape. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the home, and therefore it was OK. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” the accused stated to the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to injure that lady.”

Survivor's Statement

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds present to stand with her, said to the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It is illegal to assault an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you consent? At no time.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she gave up her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

State's Argument

Sie, addressing the victim in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. Society is possibly in the process of that, maybe propelled by the collective awareness brought by the exposure of your case.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how rape culture was still prevalent in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

Sie told the defendant: “As long as you reject it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole sordid social system that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five came to France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his father was aggressive and that Dogan began using drugs at the age of ten. When Dogan was 17 he was apprehended by authorities for drug trafficking and his father kicked him out the family house. He spent time in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the primary guardian for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had regular intimate relations outside their marriage. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. The defendant had stated to a mental health expert that annually he sought commercial sex on his birthday. His legal representatives told the court he had a medical condition triggered by the anxiety of the first trial.