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A man was convicted on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband – and has had his jail term raised to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a new trial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her bedroom in Provence in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that Dogan, a family man, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum named “without her consent”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to visit his house to assault his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

“We hope the court will say loud and clear that in this nation, human rights are also women’s rights – that permission is individual, not delegated,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Consent is received directly and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Case History

Dominique Pelicot, among the most severe sexual predators in recent French history, was given a prison term to two decades in prison last year for drugging his wife at the time and soliciting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the community of Mazan over a span of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found culpable in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to challenge his sentence. He was first given a sentence to nine years in prison, a sentence enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any blame”.

Courtroom Details

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his village in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was leaving, the evidence indicated.

The ex-husband, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to briefly provide testimony at the appeal trial, informed the court that the accused had known his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious unbeknownst to her.”

The trial became a key topic for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to assert he was blameless and had not engaged in violation, arguing that because the victim's husband had invited him into the residence, his conduct had been acceptable.

The jury in the higher court was displayed visual proof of the victim's unconscious figure, sedated and snoring in a deep sleep, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault on several occasions over a period of what police said was several hours. The court official said she had been at risk of death by asphyxiation. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant told the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and disputed it was assault. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He declared the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” Dogan informed the court. “I proceeded because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to harm that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

The victim, who was applauded upon leaving court each day by onlookers present to support her, said to the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It is illegal to rape an unconscious woman. How could I have give you agreement? Not once.”

The victim, 72, 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

The prosecutor, turning to the victim in court, said the defendant's refusal to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. Society is perhaps in the course of that, perhaps driven by the public consciousness brought by the publication of your situation.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still common in society as part of “outdated” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a culture of consent.”

The prosecutor addressed Dogan: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a person, it’s an entire unpleasant societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was originated from Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to the nation of France, where his father worked as a concierge. The testimony revealed that his parent was aggressive and that the defendant began using drugs aged ten. When he was 17 he was apprehended by police for dealing drugs and his father evicted him the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his early 20s and had worked as a laborer but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a child with Down’s syndrome, 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 sexual encounters outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. Dogan had stated to a evaluator that each year he looked for transactional encounters on his birthday. His attorneys informed the court he had a medical condition triggered by the pressure of the first trial.