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A defendant was convicted on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her husband – and has had his jail term extended to 10 years.

Appeal Trial

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

A jury of five men and four women, accompanied by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her home in Provence in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a family man, reached out to the victim's then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform titled “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was looking for men to come to his home to rape his wife once he had drugged her into a comatose state.

We expect the court will say loud and clear that in this society, human rights are also rights of women – that permission is personal, not given by another,” declared the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Permission is obtained personally and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Background

The ex-husband, among the most severe sex offenders in modern French history, was handed a sentence to 20 years in prison last year for drugging his wife at the time and soliciting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a duration of nearly ten years of their union.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to appeal against his sentence. He was originally sentenced to 9 years in prison, a sentence raised on Thursday to ten years.

The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any accountability”.

Courtroom Details

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his residence in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the evidence indicated.

The ex-husband, who was brought from segregation in prison to briefly testify at the hearing, told the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “incapacitated” and he told to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her consent.”

The courtroom became a focus point for a larger conversation on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to assert he was blameless and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the room, his actions had been acceptable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, comatose and breathing heavily in a deep sleep, while a smiling Dogan engaged in violation on several occasions over a period of what authorities reported was 3.5 hours. The judge said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by choking. The prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan told the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan informed the court. “I proceeded because he persuaded me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to hurt that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

The victim, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by onlookers assembled to support her, said to the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is illegal to rape an unaware woman. When did I ever give you consent? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she waived her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

State's Argument

Sie, speaking to the victim in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is possibly in the course of that, perhaps driven by the societal understanding resulting from the exposure of your ordeal.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how societal tolerance was still widespread in society as part of “outdated” forms of “male domination”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor said to Dogan: “As long as you reject it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire disturbing social system that you are supporting.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was originated from Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to the nation of France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his father was abusive and that the defendant began consuming marijuana at the age of 10. When Dogan was 17 he was caught by police for drug trafficking and his parent forced him to leave of home. He spent time in prison for drug dealing in his early 20s and had worked as a laborer but had experienced periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a child with Down’s syndrome, 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 regular intimate relations outside their union. His defence said this was his way of coping with his stressful life. The defendant had stated to a evaluator that once a year he engaged in transactional encounters on his birthday. His lawyers stated to the court he had a medical condition caused by the pressure of the original case.