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A defendant was convicted on appeal of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband – and was given his incarceration period extended to 10 years.

Retrial Proceedings

The defendant, 44, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a new trial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her home in the south of France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a family man, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform called “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to enter his residence to assault his wife after he had drugged her into a deep sleep.

We trust the panel will say loud and clear that in this country, human rights are also rights of women – that consent is personal, not delegated,” declared the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Consent is obtained directly and not through someone else from a husband.”

Background

The husband, among the most severe sex offenders in recent French history, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his then wife and soliciting dozens of men to rape her in her home in the community of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found convicted in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to challenge his sentence. He was first given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a penalty enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

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

Evidence Presented

The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then driven an hour from his town in the region to rape the victim, after notifying his wife he was stepping out, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to briefly provide testimony at the appeal trial, stated to the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to assault my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The courtroom became a focus point for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to assert he was blameless and had not engaged in violation, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had welcomed him into the bedroom, his actions had been justifiable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown recorded footage of Gisèle Pelicot’s unresponsive form, sedated and snoring in a deep sleep, while a grinning the perpetrator committed rape multiple times over a timeframe of what investigators stated was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at danger of death by suffocation. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan informed the court the recordings were simply “sex scenes” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him to the house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” the accused stated to the court. “I carried on because he reassured me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to harm that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

The victim, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by onlookers assembled to stand with her, addressed Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is unlawful to rape an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you consent? At no time.”

The victim, 72, became an global icon after she gave up her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. The public is perhaps in the midst of that, perhaps driven by the societal understanding resulting from the publication of your case.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still common in society as part of “outdated” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor addressed Dogan: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole unpleasant societal structure that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his father was abusive and that the defendant began smoking cannabis aged ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was caught by police for selling narcotics and his parent kicked him out of home. He spent time in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had experienced periods of living on the streets.

He was wed and had a son with a genetic condition, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a educational cafeteria. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had regular sexual encounters beyond their marriage. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. Dogan had told a mental health expert that annually he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His legal representatives stated to the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the anxiety of the initial proceedings.