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A defendant was declared guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot after she was sedated by her then-husband – and received his incarceration period increased to ten years.

Appeal Trial

Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his first conviction last year, underwent a appeal hearing this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of five men and four women, accompanied by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her home in southern France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that Dogan, a married father, made contact with the victim's then husband, the husband, in an digital platform titled “without her consent”, where the husband was seeking men to enter his residence to rape his wife once he had drugged her into a comatose state.

We expect the jury will say loud and clear that in this country, human rights are also women’s rights – that consent is individual, not transferred,” said the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Consent is received personally and not via a representative from a husband.”

Context

The husband, a notorious sexual predators in recent French history, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his wife at the time and soliciting dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a period of many years of their union.

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

The chief prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “completely denies to take any responsibility”.

Courtroom Details

The defendant had first sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his village in Provence to assault the victim, after informing his wife he was going out, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily testify at the appeal trial, stated to the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “sedated” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to abuse my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.”

The trial became a key topic for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to claim he was blameless and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had welcomed him into the residence, his actions had been justifiable.

The jury in the higher court was shown visual proof of the victim's unconscious figure, sedated and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation multiple times over a timeframe of what authorities reported was several hours. The judge said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by suffocation. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been unaware and had not consented.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan stated to the court the footage were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He declared the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” Dogan stated to the court. “I proceeded because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to injure that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon leaving court each day by crowds assembled to back her, told the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you raped me? It is illegal to rape an unaware woman. When did I ever give you agreement? At no time.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an symbol of resistance after she relinquished her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, addressing the victim in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is perhaps in the process of that, maybe motivated by the public consciousness brought by the exposure of your situation.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how rape culture was still prevalent in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

Sie said to Dogan: “While you reject it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole sordid cultural framework that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

The accused was originated from the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 came to France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The court heard that his parent was abusive and that Dogan began consuming marijuana aged ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was apprehended by authorities for selling narcotics and his father evicted him the family house. He spent time in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a son with a genetic condition, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had repeated extramarital activities beyond their union. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had informed a court psychologist that annually he looked for transactional encounters on his birthday. His lawyers stated to the court he had a medical condition triggered by the stress of the first trial.