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A defendant was convicted on appeal of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was sedated by her spouse – and was given his incarceration period raised to a decade.

Appeal Trial

Dogan, 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 bedroom in the south of France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a married father, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, the husband, in an online chatroom named “without her consent”, where the husband was looking for men to enter his residence to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a deep sleep.

We expect the jury will affirm that in this society, human rights are also rights of women – that consent is personal, not transferred,” said the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Agreement is secured personally and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Background

The ex-husband, among the most severe sex offenders in modern French history, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for drugging his then wife and bringing in numerous individuals to sexually assault her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a duration of almost a decade of their marriage.

Numerous other individuals were found guilty in a notable trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to challenge his conviction. He was first handed a term to nine years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to 10 years.

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

Evidence Presented

Dogan had first sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his village in Provence to assault the victim, after telling his wife he was leaving, the evidence indicated.

The ex-husband, who was brought from segregation in prison to temporarily testify at the hearing, told the court that the accused had known his wife had been “incapacitated” and he told to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep unbeknownst to her.”

The courtroom became a key topic for a larger conversation on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to assert he was blameless and had not engaged in violation, arguing that because the victim's husband had invited him into the residence, his conduct had been permissible.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, comatose and snoring in a comatose state, while a smiling Dogan engaged in violation multiple times over a period of what investigators stated was three and a half hours. The presiding judge said she had been at risk of death by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unaware and had not given permission.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant stated to the court the footage were simply “sexual encounters” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the home, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” the accused informed the court. “I proceeded because he reassured me.”

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

Survivor's Statement

The victim, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers gathered to support her, said to the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you admit you violated me? It’s a crime to rape 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 waived her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, speaking to the victim in court, said Dogan’s failure to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. The community is maybe in the midst of that, maybe motivated by the public consciousness resulting from the exposure of your situation.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “outdated” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

Sie told Dogan: “For as much as you reject it, it’s not just a person, it’s an complete disturbing societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was originated from Turkey and at the age of five relocated to France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his father was violent and that Dogan began smoking cannabis aged 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for drug trafficking and his parent kicked him out the residence. He served time in prison for drug dealing in his young adulthood and had worked as a construction worker but had faced periods of living on the streets.

He was married and had a child with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had frequent intimate relations beyond their union. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had told a court psychologist that each year he engaged in commercial sex on his birthday. His lawyers told the court he had joint inflammation caused by the pressure of the original case.