🔗 Share this article

A defendant has been found guilty on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was sedated by her husband – and has had his jail term raised to 10 years.

Retrial Proceedings

The defendant, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his first conviction last year, experienced a appeal hearing this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A jury of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her residence in southern France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that Dogan, a married father, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform called “without her consent”, where the husband was seeking men to visit his house to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

We expect the panel will say loud and clear that in this country, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that permission is personal, not transferred,” said the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Agreement is obtained directly and not by proxy from a husband.”

Context

The ex-husband, a notorious sex offenders in modern French history, was sentenced to two decades in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and soliciting numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a duration of many years of their union.

Fifty other men were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to challenge his verdict. He was first sentenced to 9 years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to a decade.

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

Courtroom Details

The defendant had first sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his town in Provence to assault the victim, after telling his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily testify at the hearing, told the court that the accused had known his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to abuse my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious unbeknownst to her.”

The trial became a focus point for a broader debate on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to claim he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the room, his actions had been permissible.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, unconscious and snoring in a deep sleep, while a grinning the perpetrator committed rape repeatedly over a duration of what police said was three and a half hours. The judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unaware and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant told the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” Dogan stated to the court. “I continued because he reassured me.”

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

Survivor's Statement

The victim, who was supported upon leaving court each day by supporters gathered to support her, told Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When are you going to recognise you assaulted me? It is unlawful to rape an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you agreement? At no time.”

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

Legal Commentary

Sie, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's failure to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is perhaps in the course of that, perhaps driven by the collective awareness spurred by the publication of your situation.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how rape culture was still widespread in society as part of “archaic” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

Sie addressed Dogan: “While you reject it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire unpleasant societal structure that you are supporting.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was originated from Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his parent was abusive and that Dogan began using drugs aged 10. When Dogan was 17 he was stopped by police for dealing drugs and his father forced him to leave the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his early 20s and had worked as a builder but had experienced periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a son with a genetic condition, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a educational cafeteria. The court heard his spouse did not know he had frequent intimate relations beyond their marriage. His defence said this was his way of coping with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had told a mental health expert that each year he sought transactional encounters on his special day. His lawyers told the court he had arthritis resulting from the stress of the initial proceedings.