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A man was convicted on retrial of raping Gisele Pelicot after she was sedated by her then-husband – and was given his incarceration period increased to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a appeal hearing this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A jury of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her home in Provence in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The testimony revealed that the accused, a married father, made contact with the victim's husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum titled “without her consent”, where Pelicot was seeking men to enter his residence to rape his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a unconscious state.

We expect the jury 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 the victim's attorney, her legal representative. “Permission is obtained directly and not by proxy from a husband.”

Context

The ex-husband, among the most severe sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to two decades in prison last year for drugging his spouse and bringing in numerous individuals to sexually assault her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a period of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found culpable in a notable trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to contest his sentence. He was initially sentenced to nine years in prison, a punishment raised on Thursday to a decade.

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

Courtroom Details

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his town in Provence to assault the victim, after telling his wife he was stepping out, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was brought from isolation in prison to briefly testify at the hearing, told the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “sedated” and he told to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The courtroom became a central issue for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to claim he was not guilty and had not committed rape, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the bedroom, his conduct had been acceptable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with recorded footage of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, sedated and snoring in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation repeatedly over a period of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at peril of death by suffocation. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan told the court the videos were simply “sexual encounters” and rejected it was violation. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not assault. He declared the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the home, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan told the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

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

Pelicot's Words

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon departing the trial each day by crowds assembled to support her, said to Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is illegal to rape an unconscious woman. How could I have give you agreement? Never.”

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

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. The public is perhaps in the process of that, maybe motivated by the public consciousness resulting from the publication of your situation.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how rape culture was still prevalent in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “male domination”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

Sie told Dogan: “While you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an complete sordid cultural framework that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of France, where his father worked as a concierge. The evidence indicated that his father was abusive and that the defendant began using drugs aged ten. When Dogan was 17 he was apprehended by police for drug trafficking and his father evicted him the residence. He served time in prison for trafficking in his early 20s and had worked as a construction worker but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his wife did not know he had frequent intimate relations outside their union. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had informed a evaluator that each year he engaged in transactional encounters on his special day. His attorneys stated to the court he had a medical condition caused by the stress of the first trial.