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A defendant has been found guilty on retrial of raping Gisele Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her then-husband – and has had his prison sentence extended to 10 years.

Appeal Trial

Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a new trial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A panel of four women and five men, joined by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her bedroom in the south of France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a married father, made contact with the victim's spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum called “without her consent”, where Pelicot was seeking men to enter his residence to assault his wife once he had drugged her into a unconscious state.

We trust the jury will say loud and clear that in this nation, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that consent is personal, not delegated,” declared the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Consent is received directly and not by proxy from a husband.”

Background

The ex-husband, one of the worst sexual predators in recent French history, was given a prison term to 20 years in prison last year for incapacitating his wife at the time and inviting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a period of many years of their union.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to challenge his sentence. He was originally handed a term to nine years in prison, a sentence raised on Thursday to ten years.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any blame”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then traveled an hour from his residence in Provence to rape the victim, after notifying his wife he was going out, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was brought from segregation in prison to briefly give evidence at the retrial, told the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “incapacitated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her unbeknownst to her.”

The proceedings became a focus point for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to claim he was not guilty and had not engaged in violation, arguing that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the residence, his actions had been justifiable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed video evidence of the victim's limp body, sedated and snoring in a deep sleep, while a smiling the perpetrator engaged in violation multiple times over a duration of what investigators stated was several hours. The court official said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant informed the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was violation. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He declared the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused stated to the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to injure that lady.”

Survivor's Statement

The survivor, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by crowds assembled to back her, addressed the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. 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? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an global icon after she relinquished her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

State's Argument

The prosecutor, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's refusal to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is possibly in the course of that, possibly motivated by the collective awareness spurred by the exposure of your case.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how rape culture was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “It is imperative to change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

Sie said to the defendant: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole sordid societal structure that you are supporting.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 came to the nation of France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his parent was violent and that the defendant began smoking cannabis aged ten. When he was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for selling narcotics and his father forced him to leave the residence. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of living on the streets.

He was wed and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the primary guardian for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had frequent sexual encounters outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had stated to a evaluator that each year he sought transactional encounters on his special day. His attorneys told the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the stress of the initial proceedings.