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A defendant was declared guilty on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was sedated by her husband – and received his jail term extended to ten years.

Retrial Proceedings

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

A jury of five men and four women, joined by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her residence in southern France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a married father, connected with the victim's spouse, the husband, in an digital platform named “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was seeking men to enter his residence to rape his wife after he had sedated her into a comatose state.

We expect the jury will declare that in this nation, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that agreement is individual, not given by another,” declared the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is received personally and not via a representative from a husband.”

Background

The ex-husband, among the most severe sex offenders in modern French history, was handed a sentence to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and bringing in numerous individuals to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a duration of many years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found convicted in a notable trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to challenge his verdict. He was originally sentenced to nine years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to a decade.

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

Testimony and Proof

Dogan had first sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his residence in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to briefly give evidence at the appeal trial, informed 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 rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”

The trial became a key topic for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to assert he was innocent and had not engaged in violation, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the room, his conduct had been acceptable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown video evidence of the victim's unresponsive form, unconscious and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a smiling the perpetrator committed rape multiple times over a duration of what investigators stated was 3.5 hours. The presiding judge said she had been at peril of death by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not given permission.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant stated to the court the recordings were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the house, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan told the court. “I proceeded because he persuaded me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to injure that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds gathered to support her, told Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It is illegal to rape an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you agreement? Never.”

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.”

State's Argument

Sie, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's refusal to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The public is perhaps in the midst of that, perhaps propelled by the collective awareness spurred by the publication of your situation.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how rape culture was still widespread in society as part of “outdated” forms of “male domination”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

Sie said to the defendant: “As long as you reject it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire unpleasant cultural framework that you are upholding.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five moved to France, where his father worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his father was abusive and that the defendant began consuming marijuana aged 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was stopped by police for drug trafficking and his parent kicked him out the family house. He served time in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of living on the streets.

He was married and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had repeated intimate relations outside their union. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had told a mental health expert that each year he sought commercial sex on his special day. His lawyers stated to the court he had arthritis resulting from the anxiety of the first trial.