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A defendant has been found guilty on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and was given his incarceration period raised to 10 years.

Higher Court Case

Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a appeal hearing this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A jury of five men and four women, joined by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her residence in the south of France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that Dogan, a married father, connected with the victim's spouse, the husband, in an internet forum titled “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was seeking men to enter his residence to rape his wife once he had drugged her into a deep sleep.

We expect the court will affirm that in this country, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that consent is personal, not transferred,” stated the victim's attorney, her legal representative. “Agreement is obtained directly and not via a representative from a husband.”

Case History

Dominique Pelicot, one of the worst sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to two decades in prison last year for incapacitating his wife at the time and soliciting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a notable trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to contest his sentence. He was first handed a term to 9 years in prison, a sentence increased on Thursday to 10 years.

The chief prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve twelve years, because he “completely denies to take any responsibility”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his village in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the retrial, informed the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “drugged” and he told to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to assault my wife after I’ve sedated her unbeknownst to her.”

The courtroom became a central issue for a broader debate on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to assert he was blameless and had not committed rape, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the room, his actions had been permissible.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed visual proof of the victim's limp body, comatose and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a grinning Dogan performed assault repeatedly over a duration of what investigators stated was 3.5 hours. The presiding judge said she had been at danger of death by suffocation. The prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan stated to the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was violation. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the house, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” the accused stated to the court. “I continued because he reassured me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to harm that lady.”

Survivor's Statement

The survivor, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by supporters present to support her, addressed Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you violated me? It’s a crime to rape an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you agreement? Not once.”

The victim, 72, became an global icon after she relinquished her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

State's Argument

The prosecutor, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s failure to take blame showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The public is possibly in the process of that, possibly driven by the public consciousness spurred by the publication of your case.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “archaic” forms of “male domination”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

Sie told the defendant: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an complete unpleasant cultural framework that you are supporting.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of five moved to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The testimony revealed that his parent was aggressive and that the defendant began smoking cannabis aged 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was caught by police for drug trafficking and his parent evicted him the residence. He was incarcerated in prison for drug dealing in his early 20s and had worked as a builder but had experienced periods of living on the streets.

He was wed and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a educational cafeteria. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had repeated sexual encounters outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his stressful life. The defendant had informed a mental health expert that each year he looked for transactional encounters on his special day. His lawyers stated to the court he had a medical condition resulting from the pressure of the first trial.