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A defendant was declared guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her spouse – and was given his incarceration period extended to 10 years.

Appeal Trial

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

A panel of five men and four women, joined by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her home in Provence in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a family man, made contact with the victim's husband at the time, the husband, in an digital platform named “without her consent”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to visit his house to assault his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a deep sleep.

We expect the panel will affirm that in this nation, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that consent is personal, not delegated,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, her legal representative. “Agreement is secured directly and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Context

The ex-husband, one of the worst sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year for drugging his then wife and soliciting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the town of Mazan over a period of almost a decade of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found culpable in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to appeal against his sentence. He was originally handed a term to nine years in prison, a sentence raised on Thursday to ten years.

The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any accountability”.

Courtroom Details

The defendant had first sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his residence in the region to rape the victim, after informing his wife he was leaving, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was brought from segregation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the hearing, told the court that the accused had known his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to assault my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The proceedings became a key topic for a larger conversation on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to assert he was innocent and had not committed rape, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the residence, his behavior had been acceptable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, comatose and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a smiling Dogan performed assault on several occasions over a timeframe of what police said was three and a half hours. The presiding judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan stated to the court the videos were simply “sex scenes” and denied it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the home, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” Dogan stated to the court. “I continued because he convinced me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to harm that woman.”

Survivor's Statement

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon leaving court each day by crowds present to support her, addressed Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When will you admit you violated me? It is unlawful to assault an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you agreement? Not once.”

The victim, 72, became an international feminist hero after she relinquished her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take responsibility showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. Society is maybe in the process of that, possibly driven by the societal understanding brought by the exposure of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still common in society as part of “archaic” forms of “male domination”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

Sie told Dogan: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an complete sordid social system that you are upholding.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his father was violent and that Dogan began consuming marijuana at the age of ten. When he was seventeen he was caught by police for dealing drugs and his parent forced him to leave the residence. He served time in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of living on the streets.

He was wed 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 testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had regular extramarital activities outside their marriage. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. The defendant had informed a court psychologist that once a year he sought commercial sex on his birthday. His lawyers told the court he had arthritis resulting from the stress of the first trial.