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A defendant was declared guilty on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was sedated by her spouse – and was given his incarceration period increased to ten years.

Retrial Proceedings

The defendant, 44, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his first conviction last year, experienced a appeal hearing this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A panel of four women and five men, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping the victim in her bedroom in the south of France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a family man, reached out to the victim's spouse, the husband, in an online chatroom titled “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was looking for men to visit his house to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

We trust the court will declare that in this country, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that permission is personal, not transferred,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, her legal representative. “Agreement is obtained personally and not through someone else from a husband.”

Context

The ex-husband, among the most severe sex offenders in modern French history, was sentenced to two decades in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and bringing in numerous individuals to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a span of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found convicted in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to challenge his sentence. He was first given a sentence to nine years in prison, a sentence enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

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

Evidence Presented

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his village in the region to rape the victim, after notifying his wife he was leaving, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the retrial, told the court that the accused had known his wife had been “incapacitated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.”

The proceedings became a central issue for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to claim he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, stating that because the victim's husband had invited him into the bedroom, his behavior had been justifiable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with visual proof of the victim's unconscious figure, comatose and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a smiling Dogan engaged in violation on several occasions over a timeframe of what police said was 3.5 hours. The judge said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state's case said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan stated to the court the footage were simply “intimate moments” and disputed it was violation. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. He told the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan informed the court. “I carried on because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to hurt that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers assembled to stand with her, told Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you raped me? It’s a crime to assault an unconscious woman. How could I have give you consent? Never.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she waived her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

State's Argument

The prosecutor, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's failure to take responsibility showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. Society is perhaps in the process of that, maybe propelled by the public consciousness resulting from the exposure of your situation.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of non-guilt showed how rape culture was still widespread 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 reject it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole disturbing societal structure that you are supporting.”

Biographical Details

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The court heard that his father was violent and that Dogan began consuming marijuana aged ten. When Dogan was 17 he was apprehended by police for drug trafficking and his parent evicted him the family house. He spent time in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a laborer but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his spouse did not know he had repeated extramarital activities beyond their marriage. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. Dogan had informed a evaluator that annually he sought commercial sex on his special day. His attorneys stated to the court he had arthritis triggered by the stress of the initial proceedings.