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A man has been found guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband – and received his prison sentence increased to 10 years.

Higher Court Case

The defendant, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had contested his first conviction last year, underwent a new trial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A panel of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her bedroom in Provence in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a married father, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, the husband, in an online chatroom called “without her consent”, where Pelicot was seeking men to visit his house to assault his wife after he had sedated her into a comatose state.

We expect the court will say loud and clear that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that agreement is personal, not delegated,” said the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Permission is secured personally and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Context

The ex-husband, a notorious sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to two decades in prison last year for drugging his then wife and bringing in numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a period of almost a decade of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to appeal against his sentence. He was originally given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to a decade.

The chief prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any accountability”.

Testimony and Proof

Dogan had first sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his village in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily testify at the appeal trial, told the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to assault my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her consent.”

The proceedings became a central issue for a broader debate on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to say he was not guilty and had not committed rape, stating that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the room, his actions had been justifiable.

The jury in the higher court was displayed visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s unresponsive form, comatose and snoring in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault repeatedly over a timeframe of what investigators stated was several hours. The presiding judge said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been incapacitated and had not consented.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant told the court the videos were simply “sexual encounters” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He stated the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I tried to halt,” Dogan told the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to harm that individual.”

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers assembled to stand with her, said to the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you admit you assaulted me? It is illegal to rape an unconscious woman. When did I ever give you consent? Never.”

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

State's Argument

Sie, speaking to the victim in court, said the defendant's refusal to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. The public is perhaps in the course of that, maybe driven by the public consciousness spurred by the publication of your situation.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how societal tolerance was still widespread in society as part of “outdated” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor told Dogan: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole sordid cultural framework that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his parent was violent and that Dogan began using drugs at the age of 10. When he was 17 he was apprehended by police for drug trafficking and his father kicked him out the family house. He served time in prison for drug dealing in his young adulthood and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a son with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had frequent intimate relations beyond their marriage. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. The defendant had told a court psychologist that annually he engaged in commercial sex on his birthday. His lawyers informed the court he had arthritis resulting from the pressure of the initial proceedings.