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A defendant has been found guilty on appeal of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was sedated by her husband – and received his jail term increased to 10 years.

Appeal Trial

The defendant, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a new trial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A jury of nine jurors, accompanied by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her home in southern France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a married father, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum titled “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was looking for men to visit his house to assault his wife after he had drugged her into a deep sleep.

We trust the court will declare that in this society, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that permission is personal, not delegated,” said the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Agreement is obtained directly and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Background

The ex-husband, among the most severe sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and soliciting dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a period of nearly ten years of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found convicted in a notable trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to challenge his verdict. He was first handed a term to nine years in prison, a sentence increased on Thursday to 10 years.

The chief prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any accountability”.

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his residence in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily testify at the retrial, informed the court that the accused had known his wife had been “sedated” and he told to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to assault my wife after I’ve sedated her without her knowledge.”

The trial became a focus point for a broader debate on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to claim he was not guilty and had not committed rape, arguing that because the victim's husband had invited him into the residence, his conduct had been justifiable.

The panel in the higher court was presented with visual proof of the victim's unresponsive form, sedated and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a smiling the perpetrator engaged in violation on several occasions over a duration of what authorities reported was several hours. The judge said she had been at peril of death by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan told 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 declared the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the residence, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I tried to halt,” Dogan told the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to harm that lady.”

Survivor's Statement

The victim, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by crowds gathered to support her, addressed the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you admit you violated me? It is illegal to rape an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you consent? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an symbol of resistance after she gave up her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

State's Argument

Sie, turning to the victim in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. The community is perhaps in the process of that, maybe propelled by the collective awareness resulting from the publication of your situation.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how rape culture was still common in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor addressed Dogan: “While you deny it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole sordid cultural framework that you are endorsing.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his father was aggressive and that Dogan began using drugs at the age of 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was caught by police for selling narcotics and his parent evicted him the residence. He served time in prison for narcotics offenses in his twenties and had worked as a builder but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a child with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had repeated intimate relations beyond their marriage. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had told a court psychologist that annually he sought transactional encounters on his special day. His attorneys stated to the court he had arthritis resulting from the anxiety of the initial proceedings.