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A defendant was convicted on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her then-husband – and was given his incarceration period extended to 10 years.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a retrial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of nine jurors, accompanied by 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 29 June 2019.

The court heard that Dogan, a married father, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum titled “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was looking for men to visit his house to rape his wife once he had drugged her into a unconscious state.

We expect the court will affirm that in this society, human rights are also rights of women – that permission is personal, not given by another,” stated the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Permission is obtained personally and not through someone else from a husband.”

Context

The husband, among the most severe sex offenders in modern French history, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for drugging his then wife and inviting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the community of Mazan over a duration of many years of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to challenge his verdict. He was first given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to ten years.

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

Courtroom Details

Dogan had initially sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then traveled an hour from his residence in the region to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was brought from isolation in prison to briefly provide testimony at the hearing, stated to the court that the accused had known his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”

The trial became a key topic for a broader debate on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to claim he was innocent and had not engaged in violation, arguing that because the victim's husband had invited him into the residence, his behavior had been justifiable.

The jury in the higher court was displayed recorded footage of Gisèle Pelicot’s unresponsive form, unconscious and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault multiple times over a timeframe of what investigators stated was several hours. The judge said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not consented.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant stated to the court the recordings were simply “sex scenes” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He told the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan told the court. “I continued because he convinced me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to harm that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers gathered to back her, said to the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you assaulted me? It is illegal to assault an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you permission? At no time.”

The victim, 72, became an international feminist hero after she waived her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's failure to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The public is possibly in the course of that, maybe driven by the collective awareness brought by the exposure of your situation.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “outdated” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a culture of consent.”

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

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five moved to France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his father was violent and that the defendant began using drugs aged ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was caught by police for selling narcotics and his parent evicted him the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of homelessness.

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 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 stressful life. Dogan had informed a court psychologist that each year he sought paid sex on his birthday. His legal representatives told the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the pressure of the original case.