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An individual was declared guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and received his prison sentence increased to 10 years.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a appeal hearing this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A jury of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her home in southern France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that Dogan, a married father, made contact with the victim's husband at the time, the husband, in an digital platform titled “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was recruiting men to come to his home to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a deep sleep.

“We hope the panel will affirm that in this country, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that agreement is personal, not transferred,” said the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is received directly and not by proxy from a husband.”

Background

Dominique Pelicot, among the most severe sex offenders in modern French history, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his wife at the time and bringing in multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the community of Mazan over a span of many years of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found culpable in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to contest his sentence. He was originally handed a term to nine years in prison, a penalty enhanced on Thursday to 10 years.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any blame”.

Testimony and Proof

Dogan had initially sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his town in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was leaving, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the retrial, told the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “incapacitated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to assault my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her consent.”

The courtroom became a key topic for a broader debate on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to claim he was not guilty and had not committed rape, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the bedroom, his behavior had been justifiable.

The jury in the higher court was shown video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, sedated and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation multiple times 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 choking. The state's case said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan informed the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the home, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” the accused stated to the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

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

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by onlookers gathered to stand with her, told Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is illegal to rape an incapacitated woman. How could I have give you agreement? At no time.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an symbol of resistance after she relinquished her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

The prosecutor, turning to the victim in court, said the defendant's failure to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is maybe in the process of that, perhaps driven by the collective awareness brought by the publication of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how societal tolerance was still common in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a culture of consent.”

Sie told Dogan: “For as much as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole disturbing societal structure that you are upholding.”

Personal History

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The evidence indicated that his parent was aggressive and that Dogan began smoking cannabis at the age of ten. When he was seventeen he was apprehended by authorities for selling narcotics and his father kicked him out the family house. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a son with a genetic condition, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had regular intimate relations outside their union. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had told a mental health expert that once a year he sought paid sex on his birthday. His legal representatives stated to the court he had a medical condition triggered by the anxiety of the original case.