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An individual has been found guilty on higher court review of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her then-husband – and has had his incarceration period extended to 10 years.

Higher Court Case

Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a new trial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of nine jurors, joined by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her home in Provence in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a married father, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, the husband, in an digital platform called “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was looking for men to visit his house to rape his wife after he had drugged her into a unconscious state.

“We hope the panel will declare that in this nation, human rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is individual, not given by another,” declared the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Permission is secured personally and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Background

Dominique Pelicot, among the most severe sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his then wife and soliciting dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a period of nearly ten years of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to appeal against his sentence. He was first sentenced to 9 years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to a decade.

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

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then traveled an hour from his village in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was going out, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily testify at the hearing, told the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”

The trial became a focus point for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to claim he was not guilty and had not committed rape, stating that because the victim's husband had invited him into the residence, his behavior had been acceptable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with video evidence of the victim's unconscious figure, unconscious and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a smiling the perpetrator engaged in violation repeatedly over a period of what authorities reported was several hours. The presiding judge said she had been at danger of death by choking. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant informed the court the recordings were simply “sex scenes” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” the accused told the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to injure that lady.”

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters gathered to support her, said to Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you assaulted me? It is unlawful to rape an unaware woman. How could I have give you consent? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she gave up her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

State's Argument

Sie, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's refusal to take accountability showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The community is possibly in the process of that, possibly driven by the societal understanding spurred by the exposure of your case.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how societal tolerance was still prevalent in society as part of “outdated” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a culture of consent.”

The prosecutor told the defendant: “For as much as you reject it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an complete disturbing cultural framework that you are supporting.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 came to France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The evidence indicated that his father was aggressive and that the defendant began using drugs at the age of ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was apprehended by police for drug trafficking and his father evicted him the family house. He served time in prison for narcotics offenses in his early 20s and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of living on the streets.

He was married and had a son with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had frequent extramarital activities outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had informed a evaluator that once a year he sought transactional encounters on his special day. His lawyers stated to the court he had joint inflammation caused by the anxiety of the original case.