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A man was convicted on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her husband – and received his incarceration period extended to ten years.

Appeal Trial

The defendant, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had contested his first conviction last year, faced a appeal hearing this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A panel of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her home in the south of France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that Dogan, a married father, reached out to the victim's husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum called “without her knowledge”, where the husband was seeking men to come to his home to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a comatose state.

“We hope the jury will say loud and clear that in this society, human rights are also rights of women – that agreement is individual, not given by another,” said the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is received personally and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Context

Dominique Pelicot, one of the worst sex offenders in modern French history, was given a prison term to two decades in prison last year for sedating 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 duration of nearly ten years of their union.

Fifty other men were found convicted in a notable trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to contest his verdict. He was initially handed a term to nine years in prison, a punishment raised on Thursday to a decade.

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

Courtroom Details

Dogan had initially sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his town in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the retrial, told the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “incapacitated” and he told to men by phone: “I want someone to abuse my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.”

The trial became a focus point for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to claim he was blameless and had not committed rape, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had welcomed him into the bedroom, his actions had been justifiable.

The panel in the higher court was shown visual proof of the victim's unresponsive form, sedated and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a smiling Dogan engaged in violation on several occasions over a timeframe of what authorities reported was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at danger of death by choking. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan told the court the videos were simply “sexual encounters” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. He told the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the house, and therefore it was OK. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused informed the court. “I proceeded because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to harm that individual.”

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters gathered to stand with her, addressed the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you admit you violated me? It is unlawful to rape an unaware woman. How could I have give you consent? Not once.”

The victim, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she relinquished her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

State's Argument

Sie, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is perhaps in the process of that, perhaps propelled by the collective awareness spurred by the revelation of your situation.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor said to Dogan: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole unpleasant social system that you are upholding.”

Personal History

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of five moved to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his parent was aggressive and that the defendant began consuming marijuana aged ten. When he was seventeen he was caught by authorities for selling narcotics and his father forced him to leave the family house. He served time in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of living on the streets.

He was wed and had a son with a genetic condition, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a educational cafeteria. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had regular sexual encounters outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had informed a evaluator that once a year he engaged in commercial sex on his birthday. His legal representatives told the court he had joint inflammation triggered by the anxiety of the initial proceedings.