🔗 Share this article

An individual was convicted on higher court review of raping Gisele Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her husband – and has had his jail term raised to a decade.

Appeal Trial

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

A panel of four women and five men, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping the victim in her home in Provence in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a family man, made contact with the victim's spouse, the husband, in an internet forum named “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was recruiting men to visit his house to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a deep sleep.

We expect the court will affirm that in this society, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that consent is individual, not delegated,” stated the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Permission is received personally and not via a representative from a husband.”

Background

The husband, a notorious sexual predators in recent French history, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for drugging his spouse and inviting numerous individuals to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a span of many years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to challenge his sentence. He was initially handed a term to nine years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to ten years.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any responsibility”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had initially sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his village in the region to assault the victim, after notifying his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to briefly give evidence at the hearing, informed the court that the accused had known his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to assault my wife after I’ve put her to sleep unbeknownst to her.”

The proceedings became a key topic for a broader debate on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to claim he was innocent and had not engaged in violation, arguing that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the room, his behavior had been justifiable.

The jury in the higher court was displayed visual proof of the victim's unresponsive form, sedated and snoring in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator committed rape on several occasions over a duration of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The presiding judge said she had been at peril of death by suffocation. The prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unaware and had not agreed.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan told the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was violation. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He told the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I attempted to cease,” the accused told the court. “I carried on because he reassured me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to hurt that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

The victim, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers assembled to back her, told Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you raped me? It is unlawful to rape an unaware woman. How could I have give you agreement? At no time.”

The victim, 72, became an global icon after she gave up her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

State's Argument

Sie, addressing the victim in court, said Dogan’s failure to take blame showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. Society is possibly in the process of that, maybe motivated by the public consciousness brought by the revelation of your case.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how societal tolerance was still prevalent in society as part of “archaic” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a culture of consent.”

Sie told the defendant: “For as much as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole unpleasant cultural framework that you are supporting.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The evidence indicated that his father was aggressive and that the defendant began consuming marijuana aged 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was stopped by police for dealing drugs and his father forced him to leave of home. He served time in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a child with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The court heard his spouse did not know he had regular sexual encounters beyond their marriage. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had stated to a court psychologist that once a year he engaged in commercial sex on his birthday. His legal representatives informed the court he had arthritis resulting from the anxiety of the initial proceedings.