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A man was declared guilty on appeal of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her then-husband – and was given his prison sentence raised to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his first conviction last year, faced a appeal hearing this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A jury of nine jurors, accompanied by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping the victim in her home in the south of France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a married father, made contact with the victim's husband at the time, the husband, in an online chatroom called “without her knowledge”, where the husband was seeking men to visit his house to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a deep sleep.

“We hope the panel will say loud and clear that in this nation, human rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is individual, not delegated,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, her legal representative. “Permission is obtained personally and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Case History

The husband, among the most severe sexual predators in modern French history, was handed a sentence to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his then wife and inviting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found culpable in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to contest his conviction. He was first handed a term to nine years in prison, a punishment raised on Thursday to 10 years.

The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any accountability”.

Evidence Presented

Dogan had initially sent the husband graphic images and then driven an hour from his village in the region to rape the victim, after notifying his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was transported from isolation in prison to briefly provide testimony 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 want someone to assault my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”

The courtroom became a key topic for a broader debate on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to say he was innocent and had not engaged in violation, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the bedroom, his behavior had been acceptable.

The panel in the higher court was presented with recorded footage of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, comatose and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a smiling the perpetrator performed assault multiple times over a duration of what investigators stated was 3.5 hours. The judge said she had been at danger of death by suffocation. The prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant informed the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan told the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to hurt that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was applauded upon leaving court each day by onlookers present to back her, said to Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It’s a crime to assault an unaware woman. When did I ever give you permission? Never.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an symbol of resistance after she relinquished her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is perhaps in the midst of that, maybe driven by the societal understanding resulting from the revelation of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor said to Dogan: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole unpleasant social system that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of France, where his father worked as a building manager. The testimony revealed that his father was aggressive and that Dogan began smoking cannabis aged 10. When Dogan was 17 he was caught by authorities for dealing drugs and his parent forced him to leave the residence. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a builder but had experienced periods of living on the streets.

He was wed and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the primary guardian for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had regular sexual encounters outside their marriage. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had informed a evaluator that annually he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His lawyers told the court he had a medical condition resulting from the anxiety of the original case.