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A man was convicted on appeal of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was sedated by her husband – and was given his incarceration period increased to 10 years.

Retrial Proceedings

The defendant, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his first conviction last year, experienced a retrial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A panel of four women and five men, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping the victim in her residence in the south of France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a family man, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, the husband, in an online chatroom named “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was looking for men to come to his home to assault his wife after he had drugged her into a comatose state.

We trust the jury will say loud and clear that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that permission is personal, not delegated,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is secured personally and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Context

The ex-husband, among the most severe sex offenders in modern French history, was sentenced to two decades in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and soliciting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a duration of nearly ten years of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found guilty in a notable trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to challenge his sentence. He was originally given a sentence to nine years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to ten years.

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

Evidence Presented

Dogan had first sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his town in the region to rape the victim, after telling his wife he was stepping out, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily testify at the hearing, stated to the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”

The courtroom became a key topic for a larger conversation on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to say he was innocent and had not engaged in violation, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the residence, his conduct had been justifiable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with recorded footage of the victim's limp body, sedated and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault repeatedly over a timeframe of what authorities reported was several hours. The court official said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant stated to the court the videos were simply “sex scenes” and rejected it was violation. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He told the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the home, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan stated to the court. “I continued because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to injure that woman.”

Victim's Response

The victim, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by onlookers assembled to support her, told the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you assaulted me? It’s a crime to rape an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you agreement? Not once.”

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

Legal Commentary

Sie, turning to the victim in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take blame showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The community is maybe in the process of that, perhaps motivated by the collective awareness resulting from the revelation of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “archaic” forms of “male domination”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor said to Dogan: “While you reject it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole disturbing cultural framework that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to France, where his father worked as a concierge. The court heard that his father was aggressive and that Dogan began consuming marijuana at the age of 10. When he was seventeen he was stopped by police for drug trafficking and his father forced him to leave the family house. He served time in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had faced periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had frequent sexual encounters beyond their marriage. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had stated to a court psychologist that once a year he sought paid sex on his birthday. His legal representatives stated to the court he had a medical condition triggered by the anxiety of the original case.