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A defendant was convicted on higher court review of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and was given his incarceration period raised to 10 years.

Retrial Proceedings

The defendant, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a new trial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A jury of five men and four women, joined by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her bedroom in Provence in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that Dogan, a family man, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s then husband, the husband, in an digital platform titled “without her knowledge”, where the husband was seeking men to enter his residence to rape his wife once he had drugged her into a comatose state.

We expect the panel will say loud and clear that in this society, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that consent is personal, not transferred,” stated the victim's attorney, her legal representative. “Agreement is received personally and not through someone else from a husband.”

Case History

The ex-husband, a notorious sexual predators in recent French history, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and soliciting dozens of men to rape her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a span of many years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to appeal against his sentence. He was initially sentenced to nine years in prison, a sentence enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

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

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had initially sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his village in Provence to rape the victim, after notifying his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was brought from segregation in prison to temporarily testify at the appeal trial, informed the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “incapacitated” and he told to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The proceedings became a key topic for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to assert he was blameless and had not committed rape, arguing that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the bedroom, his behavior had been permissible.

The panel in the higher court was shown visual proof of the victim's unresponsive form, sedated and breathing heavily in a deep sleep, while a smiling the perpetrator engaged in violation multiple times over a timeframe of what authorities reported was several hours. The judge said she had been at risk of death by asphyxiation. The state's case said there was no question that she had been unaware and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan told the court the footage were simply “sexual encounters” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He told the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him to the home, and therefore it was OK. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I attempted to cease,” the accused informed the court. “I proceeded because he convinced me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to injure that lady.”

Survivor's Statement

The victim, who was cheered upon leaving court each day by onlookers present to support her, said to Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you violated me? It is unlawful to rape an unaware woman. When did I ever give you agreement? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an global icon after she gave up her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

State's Argument

Sie, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's refusal to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The public is possibly in the process of that, possibly propelled by the societal understanding brought by the publication of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how societal tolerance was still widespread in society as part of “outdated” forms of “male domination”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

Sie said to the defendant: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire unpleasant societal structure that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five moved to France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his father was abusive and that Dogan began smoking cannabis aged 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was stopped by police for drug trafficking and his parent forced him to leave the family house. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a son with special needs, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had frequent extramarital activities beyond their union. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had told a evaluator that each year he looked for paid sex on his birthday. His lawyers stated to the court he had a medical condition triggered by the anxiety of the first trial.