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A defendant was declared guilty on retrial of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and was given his jail term raised to ten years.

Appeal Trial

Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a appeal hearing this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A jury of nine jurors, joined by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her residence in Provence in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that the accused, a family man, made contact with the victim's then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform titled “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was seeking men to visit his house to rape his wife after he had sedated her into a comatose state.

We trust the jury will affirm that in this country, human rights are also rights of women – that agreement is individual, not given by another,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Consent is received personally and not via a representative from a husband.”

Context

Dominique Pelicot, among the most severe sex offenders in recent French history, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and soliciting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the community of Mazan over a span of nearly ten years of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to contest his sentence. He was initially handed a term to 9 years in prison, a sentence enhanced on Thursday to ten years.

The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any blame”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had first sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his town 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 provide testimony at the retrial, stated to the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “incapacitated” and he told to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.”

The trial became a central issue for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to claim he was not guilty and had not committed rape, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had welcomed him into the room, his behavior had been acceptable.

The jury in the higher court was displayed visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, unconscious and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault repeatedly over a duration of what police said was several hours. The judge said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by choking. The prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant informed the court the videos were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was assault. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not assault. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” the accused told the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

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

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds assembled to stand with her, addressed the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It is illegal to assault an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you permission? Never.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an global icon after she relinquished her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

The prosecutor, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s failure to take blame showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The community is perhaps in the process of that, perhaps driven by the public consciousness brought by the exposure of your situation.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still common in society as part of “outdated” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

Sie said to the defendant: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire unpleasant cultural framework that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

The accused was originated from the country of Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of France, where his father worked as a building manager. The testimony revealed that his parent was abusive and that the defendant began consuming marijuana at the age of 10. When he was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for dealing drugs and his parent forced him to leave the family house. He spent time in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The court heard his spouse did not know he had regular extramarital activities outside their union. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his stressful life. The defendant had informed a mental health expert that each year he looked for paid sex on his special day. His legal representatives informed the court he had arthritis triggered by the stress of the first trial.