🔗 Share this article

A man was declared guilty on appeal of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband – and has had his prison sentence raised to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a new trial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A jury of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her residence in southern France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a married father, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum called “without her consent”, where the husband was looking for men to enter his residence to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

“We hope the court will declare that in this country, human rights are also women’s rights – that permission is personal, not transferred,” said the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Permission is obtained personally and not through someone else from a husband.”

Background

The husband, one of the worst sex offenders in recent French history, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and bringing in numerous individuals to sexually assault her in her home in the town of Mazan over a period of almost a decade of their marriage.

Numerous other individuals were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to appeal against his conviction. He was first handed a term to nine years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to a decade.

The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any accountability”.

Testimony and Proof

Dogan had first sent the husband graphic images and then driven an hour from his town in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was brought from isolation in prison to briefly provide testimony at the retrial, informed the court that the accused had known his wife had been “sedated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The proceedings became a key topic for a broader debate on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to assert he was not guilty and had not committed rape, contending that because the victim's husband had invited him into the room, his conduct had been permissible.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed visual proof of the victim's unresponsive form, sedated and snoring in a deep sleep, while a grinning Dogan committed rape on several occasions over a timeframe of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by suffocation. The prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan told the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and disputed it was assault. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He told the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the residence, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan stated to the court. “I proceeded because he convinced me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to hurt that woman.”

Victim's Response

The survivor, who was cheered 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 assaulted me? It’s a crime to assault an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you consent? Never.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an international feminist hero after she relinquished her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

The prosecutor, turning to the victim in court, said the defendant's refusal to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is possibly in the midst of that, perhaps driven by the public consciousness brought by the publication of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how rape culture was still common in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a culture of consent.”

Sie addressed the defendant: “For as much as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole sordid societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to the nation of France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his parent was violent and that the defendant began using drugs aged 10. When he was 17 he was apprehended by authorities for selling narcotics and his parent forced him to leave of home. He spent time in prison for trafficking in his early 20s and had worked as a builder but had experienced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had regular extramarital activities beyond their marriage. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. The defendant had stated to a evaluator that annually he engaged in commercial sex on his special day. His legal representatives stated to the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the stress of the initial proceedings.