🔗 Share this article

An individual was convicted on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and was given his incarceration period raised to ten years.

Higher Court Case

The defendant, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a retrial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A panel of nine jurors, joined by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her bedroom in the south of France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a married father, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform titled “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to come to his home to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a comatose state.

“We hope the jury will affirm that in this country, human rights are also women’s rights – that consent is individual, not delegated,” declared the victim's attorney, her legal representative. “Agreement is received directly and not by proxy from a husband.”

Case History

The ex-husband, a notorious sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and bringing in multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a span of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to challenge his sentence. He was originally sentenced to nine years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to ten years.

The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any responsibility”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had first sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his village in the region to rape the victim, after notifying his wife he was leaving, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to briefly provide testimony at the hearing, informed the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “sedated” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The courtroom became a focus point for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to claim he was blameless and had not committed rape, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had welcomed him into the bedroom, his actions had been justifiable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with recorded footage of the victim's limp body, comatose and snoring in a deep sleep, while a grinning Dogan engaged in violation repeatedly over a period of what authorities reported was 3.5 hours. The presiding judge said she had been at risk of death by choking. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not consented.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant told the court the recordings were simply “sexual encounters” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He declared the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the home, and therefore it was OK. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” Dogan told the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to injure that lady.”

Victim's Response

The victim, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters present to stand with her, addressed the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It is unlawful to rape an unaware woman. When did I ever give you consent? Never.”

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

State's Argument

The prosecutor, turning to the victim in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take accountability showed that: “The shame remains. The public is perhaps in the course of that, maybe driven by the societal understanding spurred by the exposure of your situation.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “outdated” forms of “male domination”. He said: “It is imperative to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

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

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five relocated to France, where his father worked as a building manager. The testimony revealed that his father was violent and that Dogan began smoking cannabis at the age of ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for drug trafficking and his parent forced him to leave the family house. He spent time in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had undergone periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a son with special needs, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had frequent intimate relations outside their marriage. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his stressful life. The defendant had stated to a mental health expert that each year he sought commercial sex on his special day. His legal representatives informed the court he had arthritis caused by the stress of the original case.