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A defendant has been found guilty on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was sedated by her then-husband – and was given his incarceration period extended to a decade.

Higher Court Case

Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had appealed his first conviction last year, experienced a appeal hearing this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her home in Provence in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a married father, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform called “without her knowledge”, where the husband was seeking men to come to his home to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a deep sleep.

We expect the panel will declare that in this nation, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that permission is personal, not delegated,” declared the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is secured directly and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Background

Dominique Pelicot, among the most severe sex offenders in modern French history, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and bringing in multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the community of Mazan over a duration of almost a decade of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to challenge his verdict. He was first handed a term to 9 years in prison, a punishment raised on Thursday to ten years.

The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any accountability”.

Courtroom Details

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his town in the region to rape the victim, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the retrial, stated to the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “sedated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The trial became a central issue for a wider discussion on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to assert he was blameless and had not committed rape, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the bedroom, his actions had been justifiable.

The panel in the higher court was shown visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s unresponsive form, unconscious and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a smiling the perpetrator performed assault on several occasions over a timeframe of what police said was three and a half hours. The judge said she had been at danger of death by choking. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not consented.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant stated to the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and denied it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He told the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I tried to halt,” the accused informed the court. “I proceeded because he reassured me.”

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

Survivor's Statement

Gisèle Pelicot, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers assembled to stand with her, told the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you acknowledge you raped me? It’s a crime to assault an unaware woman. When did I ever give you agreement? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an international feminist hero after she relinquished her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, turning to the victim in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. The community is maybe in the course of that, maybe driven by the societal understanding brought by the publication of your situation.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “outdated” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

Sie told the defendant: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an complete sordid societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to France, where his father worked as a concierge. The court heard that his father was violent and that the defendant began smoking cannabis aged ten. When Dogan was 17 he was stopped by authorities for drug trafficking and his parent forced him to leave of home. He served time in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had regular sexual encounters beyond their marriage. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had informed a mental health expert that once a year he engaged in commercial sex on his birthday. His lawyers informed the court he had joint inflammation caused by the anxiety of the first trial.