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A defendant was declared guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot after she was sedated by her then-husband – and received his jail term increased to 10 years.

Retrial Proceedings

The defendant, 44, an unemployed builder, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a retrial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A panel of four women and five men, accompanied by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her bedroom in Provence in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a family man, reached out to the victim's husband at the time, the husband, in an digital platform named “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was looking for men to come to his home to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a comatose state.

We expect the court will say loud and clear that in this society, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that permission is individual, not delegated,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Consent is obtained directly and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Background

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

Numerous other individuals were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to contest his sentence. He was first sentenced to 9 years in prison, a punishment raised on Thursday to a decade.

The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any blame”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his town in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to briefly provide testimony at the hearing, told the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “drugged” and he told to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve sedated her 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 the victim's husband had invited him into the residence, his actions had been permissible.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown recorded footage of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, unconscious and breathing heavily in a deep sleep, while a grinning Dogan engaged in violation repeatedly over a period of what police said was 3.5 hours. The presiding judge said she had been at risk of death by asphyxiation. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan stated to the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was assault. 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 invited him to the home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan stated to the court. “I continued because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to injure that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds present to back her, told Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It’s a crime to rape an unconscious woman. When did I ever give you consent? At no time.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an global icon after she relinquished her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

State's Argument

The prosecutor, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's failure to take accountability showed that: “The shame remains. The community is perhaps in the midst of that, perhaps motivated by the public consciousness brought by the exposure of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how societal tolerance was still common in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

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

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 came to France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his father was abusive and that the defendant began using drugs at the age of ten. When Dogan was 17 he was caught by authorities for drug trafficking and his parent kicked him out of home. He spent time in prison for drug dealing in his young adulthood and had worked as a builder but had undergone periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a child with special needs, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a educational cafeteria. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had regular extramarital activities outside their union. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had informed a evaluator that once a year he sought commercial sex on his special day. His legal representatives told the court he had arthritis resulting from the anxiety of the original case.