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A defendant was declared guilty on appeal of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her then-husband – and was given his prison sentence raised to ten years.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had contested his first conviction last year, experienced a retrial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

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

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a family man, connected with the victim's spouse, the husband, in an digital platform titled “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was looking for men to come to his home to assault his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a unconscious state.

We trust the panel will declare that in this country, human rights are also rights of women – that consent is personal, not transferred,” said the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Permission is received directly and not through someone else from a husband.”

Context

The husband, a notorious sex offenders in modern French history, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his spouse and bringing in numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a duration of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a notable trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to appeal against his sentence. He was initially given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a penalty enhanced on Thursday to ten years.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any accountability”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had first sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his town in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was going out, the court heard.

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

The trial became a focus point for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to assert he was innocent and had not committed rape, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the bedroom, his actions had been justifiable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed recorded footage of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, sedated and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a grinning Dogan performed assault on several occasions over a duration of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been unaware and had not consented.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant informed the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was violation. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He told the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the residence, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused stated to the court. “I carried on because he reassured me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to hurt that lady.”

Survivor's Statement

The survivor, who was applauded upon leaving court each day by onlookers gathered to back her, said to Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you violated me? It is unlawful to assault an unaware woman. When did I ever give you permission? At no time.”

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

State's Argument

The prosecutor, turning to the victim in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take blame showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The public is perhaps in the course of that, perhaps motivated by the public consciousness resulting from the revelation of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how rape culture was still prevalent in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

Sie told Dogan: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a person, it’s an complete sordid social system that you are supporting.”

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 parent worked as a concierge. The testimony revealed that his parent was violent and that Dogan began smoking cannabis at the age of 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was caught by authorities for selling narcotics and his father forced him to leave of home. He served time in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the primary guardian 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 defence said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had stated to a mental health expert that each year he sought paid sex on his birthday. His lawyers stated to the court he had a medical condition caused by the pressure of the first trial.