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A man was convicted on higher court review of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and received his incarceration period increased to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

The defendant, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a retrial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

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

The court heard that the accused, a family man, reached out to the victim's husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform titled “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was seeking men to visit his house to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a deep sleep.

“We hope the panel will affirm that in this society, human rights are also women’s rights – that consent is individual, not transferred,” said the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Consent is secured personally and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Case History

The ex-husband, a notorious sexual predators in modern French history, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for incapacitating his wife at the time and bringing in multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the community of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their union.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to appeal against his sentence. He was initially handed a term to nine years in prison, a punishment enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

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

Testimony and Proof

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

The ex-husband, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to briefly give evidence at the retrial, informed the court that the accused had known his wife had been “drugged” and he told to men by phone: “I seek someone to violate my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The proceedings became a focus point for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to assert he was not guilty and had not committed rape, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had welcomed him into the bedroom, his conduct had been acceptable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown video evidence of the victim's unconscious figure, sedated and snoring in a comatose state, while a grinning Dogan committed rape repeatedly over a timeframe of what authorities reported was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state's case said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant informed the court the recordings were simply “sexual encounters” and denied it was violation. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He told the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the house, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” the accused told the court. “I proceeded because he reassured me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to hurt that woman.”

Survivor's Statement

The survivor, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by crowds gathered to support her, addressed Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It is illegal to assault an unconscious woman. How could I have give you agreement? Not once.”

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

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, speaking to the victim in court, said Dogan’s failure to take blame showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The community is perhaps in the course of that, possibly motivated by the societal understanding resulting from the exposure of your case.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “outdated” forms of “male domination”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor said to Dogan: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole sordid societal structure that you are upholding.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five came to France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The court heard that his parent was violent and that Dogan began consuming marijuana aged ten. When Dogan was 17 he was stopped by authorities for selling narcotics and his father kicked him out the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had faced periods of living on the streets.

He was wed and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had frequent sexual encounters beyond their marriage. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had told a evaluator that each year he looked for transactional encounters on his special day. His lawyers informed the court he had joint inflammation caused by the pressure of the initial proceedings.