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An individual was declared guilty on higher court review of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband – and has had his prison sentence increased to 10 years.

Higher Court Case

Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a new trial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A jury of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her bedroom in Provence in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a married father, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom titled “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was recruiting men to visit his house to assault his wife after he had drugged her into a unconscious state.

We trust the court will affirm that in this country, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that agreement is individual, not transferred,” stated the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Permission is secured personally and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Case History

The husband, a notorious sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his then wife and soliciting numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a period of almost a decade of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found culpable in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to appeal against his conviction. He was first sentenced to 9 years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any blame”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had initially sent the husband graphic images and then driven an hour from his residence in Provence to rape the victim, after notifying his wife he was leaving, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to briefly provide testimony at the retrial, stated to the court that the accused had known his wife had been “incapacitated” and he told to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to violate my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”

The trial became a central issue for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to say he was innocent and had not engaged in violation, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the residence, his actions had been permissible.

The panel in the higher court was presented with video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, comatose and snoring in a deep sleep, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault multiple times over a duration of what investigators stated was several hours. The judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by choking. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not given permission.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan stated to the court the recordings were simply “sexual encounters” and disputed it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He declared the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan told the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to injure that individual.”

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds assembled to support her, told the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you assaulted me? It’s a crime to assault an unaware woman. At what point did I give you agreement? Never.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an global icon after she waived her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, addressing the victim in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. The community is maybe in the process of that, perhaps propelled by the collective awareness resulting from the exposure of your situation.”

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

Sie said to Dogan: “For as much as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an complete sordid social system that you are upholding.”

Personal History

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 came to the nation of France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The court heard that his parent was violent and that Dogan began smoking cannabis at the age of ten. When he was seventeen he was apprehended by authorities for drug trafficking and his father forced him to leave of home. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his early 20s and had worked as a builder but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a child with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had repeated extramarital activities outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. Dogan had stated to a mental health expert that each year he sought transactional encounters on his special day. His lawyers stated to the court he had a medical condition caused by the stress of the original case.