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A man was declared guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband – and has had his prison sentence raised to a decade.

Higher Court Case

Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a retrial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of four women and five men, accompanied by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping the victim in her residence in southern France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that Dogan, a family man, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform named “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was recruiting men to visit his house to rape his wife after he had drugged her into a deep sleep.

“We hope the jury will declare that in this society, human rights are also rights of women – that agreement is individual, not transferred,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, her legal representative. “Agreement is secured directly and not by proxy from a husband.”

Background

The ex-husband, a notorious sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year for drugging his wife at the time and bringing in multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the town of Mazan over a duration of almost a decade of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to appeal against his verdict. He was originally given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a punishment raised on Thursday to 10 years.

The chief prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “completely denies to take any accountability”.

Testimony and Proof

Dogan had first sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his village in Provence to assault the victim, after telling his wife he was leaving, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was transported from segregation in prison to briefly give evidence at the hearing, told the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “sedated” and he told to men by phone: “I seek someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.”

The proceedings became a focus point for a wider discussion on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to claim he was innocent and had not committed rape, stating that because the victim's husband had invited him into the room, his conduct had been permissible.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with visual proof of the victim's unconscious figure, comatose and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation repeatedly over a timeframe of what police said was 3.5 hours. The judge said she had been at peril of death by choking. The prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

The defendant told the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He stated the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the house, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I attempted to cease,” the accused told the court. “I proceeded because he convinced me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to harm that individual.”

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by onlookers gathered to back her, told the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you acknowledge you raped me? It’s a crime to assault an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you agreement? Never.”

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

Legal Commentary

Sie, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is maybe in the course of that, possibly motivated by the collective awareness resulting from the revelation of your case.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how societal tolerance was still prevalent in society as part of “archaic” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “It is imperative to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

Sie addressed Dogan: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a person, it’s an entire disturbing cultural framework that you are supporting.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five moved to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his parent was abusive and that the defendant began consuming marijuana aged 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was caught by authorities for dealing drugs and his parent forced him to leave of home. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his early 20s and had worked as a construction worker but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a son with a genetic condition, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had regular sexual encounters outside their union. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. The defendant had informed a court psychologist that each year he sought commercial sex on his birthday. His attorneys told the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the stress of the initial proceedings.