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A man has been found guilty on higher court review of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was sedated by her husband – and received his jail term increased to 10 years.

Appeal Trial

The defendant, 44, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his first conviction last year, faced a retrial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

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

The evidence showed that Dogan, a married father, reached out to the victim's spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom titled “without her knowledge”, where the husband was looking for men to come to his home to rape his wife after he had drugged her into a deep sleep.

We expect the panel will affirm that in this society, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that consent is individual, not delegated,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is secured directly and not through someone else from a husband.”

Background

The ex-husband, one of the worst sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his spouse and bringing in multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a span of many years of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to appeal against his sentence. He was first sentenced to 9 years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to a decade.

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

Courtroom Details

Dogan had initially sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his village in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was leaving, the evidence indicated.

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

The courtroom became a key topic for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to assert he was innocent and had not committed rape, stating that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the room, his behavior had been permissible.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was shown video evidence of the victim's unconscious figure, comatose and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a smiling the perpetrator engaged in violation repeatedly over a period of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The judge said she had been at risk of death by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been incapacitated and had not given permission.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan told the court the footage were simply “sexual encounters” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He told the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I attempted to cease,” the accused stated to the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to harm that individual.”

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon leaving court each day by crowds gathered to back her, said to the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you assaulted me? It is illegal to assault an unaware woman. At what point did I give you permission? At no time.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she relinquished her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

State's Argument

Sie, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take accountability showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. Society is possibly in the process of that, maybe motivated by the public consciousness resulting from the publication of your situation.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

Sie addressed the defendant: “While you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire unpleasant social system that you are endorsing.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was originated from the country of Turkey and at the age of five came to France, where his father worked as a building manager. The testimony revealed that his parent was abusive and that the defendant began using drugs at the age of 10. When he was 17 he was stopped by police for selling narcotics and his father forced him to leave the residence. He spent time in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had faced periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a son with special needs, who he was the primary guardian for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his spouse did not know he had regular intimate relations beyond their marriage. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. The defendant had told a evaluator that each year he looked for paid sex on his birthday. His attorneys stated to the court he had a medical condition resulting from the stress of the initial proceedings.