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A defendant was declared guilty on retrial of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her husband – and was given his jail term raised to a decade.

Appeal Trial

The defendant, 44, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a retrial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A jury of nine jurors, joined by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her home in Provence in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that Dogan, a married father, made contact with the victim's then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum titled “without her consent”, where the husband was looking for men to visit his house to rape his wife once he had drugged her into a deep sleep.

We expect the court will declare that in this country, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that agreement is individual, not given by another,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is obtained directly and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Context

Dominique Pelicot, a notorious sexual predators in modern French history, was given a prison term to two decades in prison last year for incapacitating his then wife and soliciting dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the community of Mazan over a span of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to challenge his sentence. He was initially given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a sentence increased on Thursday to ten years.

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

Evidence Presented

Dogan had initially sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his residence in the region to rape the victim, after telling his wife he was going out, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was transported from segregation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the retrial, informed the court that the accused had known his wife had been “incapacitated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep unbeknownst to her.”

The courtroom became a central issue for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to assert he was not guilty and had not engaged in violation, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the residence, his actions had been justifiable.

The panel in the higher court was presented with recorded footage of the victim's unresponsive form, comatose and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a smiling Dogan performed assault on several occasions over a timeframe of what investigators stated was several hours. The presiding judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan told the court the recordings were simply “sexual encounters” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He declared the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I tried to halt,” the accused informed the court. “I proceeded because he convinced me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to harm that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters gathered to support her, said to Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When are you going to recognise you violated me? It is illegal to assault an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you permission? Never.”

The victim, seventy-two, 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

Sie, addressing the victim in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is maybe in the process of that, maybe motivated by the public consciousness brought by the exposure of your ordeal.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how societal tolerance was still prevalent in society as part of “archaic” forms of “male domination”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor said to the defendant: “For as much as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an complete sordid social system that you are supporting.”

Personal History

The accused was originated from Turkey and at the age of five moved to France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The court heard that his father was violent and that the defendant began using drugs aged ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was caught by police for selling narcotics and his father evicted him the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a laborer but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had repeated extramarital activities outside their union. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had stated to a evaluator that annually he engaged in paid sex on his birthday. His lawyers informed the court he had a medical condition resulting from the stress of the original case.