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A defendant has been found guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and has had his prison sentence increased to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a appeal hearing this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A jury of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her residence in the south of France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The testimony revealed that the accused, a married father, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, the husband, in an digital platform named “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was looking for men to come to his home to assault his wife after he had drugged her into a comatose state.

We trust the panel will affirm that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that consent is individual, not delegated,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, her legal representative. “Agreement is received personally and not through someone else from a husband.”

Case History

The ex-husband, a notorious sexual predators in modern French history, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his wife at the time and bringing in dozens of men to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a duration of almost a decade of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found convicted in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to contest his verdict. He was originally given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a punishment enhanced on Thursday to ten years.

The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “completely denies to take any blame”.

Evidence Presented

Dogan had initially sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his residence in Provence to assault the victim, after informing his wife he was going out, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily testify at the appeal trial, stated to the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “drugged” and he told to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”

The courtroom became a focus point for a larger conversation on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to say he was not guilty and had not committed rape, contending that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the room, his actions had been justifiable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was shown visual proof of the victim's unconscious figure, sedated and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a smiling the perpetrator performed assault repeatedly over a period of what investigators stated was three and a half hours. The judge said she had been at risk of death by asphyxiation. The state's case said there was no doubt that she had been unaware and had not agreed.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan told the court the footage were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was violation. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the residence, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” the accused stated to the court. “I proceeded because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to hurt that lady.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by crowds assembled to stand with her, told Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It is illegal to rape an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you consent? Never.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an global icon after she waived her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

State's Argument

Sie, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's failure to take blame showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. Society is perhaps in the midst of that, maybe driven by the collective awareness brought by the publication of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how rape culture was still common in society as part of “outdated” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a culture of consent.”

Sie said to Dogan: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire disturbing cultural framework that you are endorsing.”

Biographical Details

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The court heard that his parent was abusive and that Dogan began consuming marijuana aged 10. When he was 17 he was stopped by authorities for selling narcotics and his father kicked him out the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had experienced periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had regular extramarital activities outside their union. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. The defendant had stated to a mental health expert that annually he looked for paid sex on his special day. His legal representatives stated to the court he had arthritis triggered by the pressure of the initial proceedings.