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A defendant was convicted on retrial of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her spouse – and received his jail term increased to a decade.

Appeal Trial

Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a appeal hearing this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A panel of five men and four women, accompanied by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping the victim in her bedroom in southern France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a family man, connected with the victim's husband at the time, the husband, in an internet forum called “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was seeking men to visit his house to rape his wife once he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

“We hope the panel will say loud and clear that in this nation, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that permission is individual, not transferred,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, her legal representative. “Permission is received personally and not via a representative 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 drugging his spouse and inviting numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a period of almost a decade of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found convicted in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to appeal against his verdict. He was initially sentenced to 9 years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to ten years.

The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any accountability”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then driven an hour from his village in Provence to rape the victim, after informing his wife he was leaving, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily testify at the retrial, told the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “sedated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to assault my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The proceedings became a focus point for a larger conversation on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to assert he was innocent and had not committed rape, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the room, his actions had been acceptable.

The jury in the higher court was displayed visual proof of the victim's limp body, unconscious and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a grinning Dogan committed rape on several occasions over a timeframe of what investigators stated was 3.5 hours. The presiding judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been incapacitated and had not given permission.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan stated to the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and disputed it was assault. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not assault. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” the accused informed the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to harm that individual.”

Survivor's Statement

The survivor, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by supporters assembled to stand with her, told the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is illegal to assault an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you agreement? At no time.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an global icon after she gave up her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

State's Argument

Sie, addressing the victim in court, said the defendant's refusal to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. Society is possibly in the course of that, perhaps propelled by the societal understanding resulting from the revelation of your ordeal.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “It is imperative to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

Sie addressed Dogan: “While you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an complete sordid cultural framework that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

The accused was originated from Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to France, where his father worked as a concierge. The evidence indicated that his parent was aggressive and that the defendant began using drugs at the age of ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was apprehended by police for selling narcotics and his parent evicted him the family house. He served time in prison for trafficking in his early 20s and had worked as a laborer but had faced 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 institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had repeated sexual encounters outside their union. His defence said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. The defendant had told a mental health expert that annually he engaged in commercial sex on his birthday. His lawyers informed the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the anxiety of the initial proceedings.