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A man was declared guilty on retrial of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her husband – and has had his incarceration period increased to 10 years.

Higher Court Case

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

A panel of five men and four women, joined by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her residence in Provence in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that the accused, a family man, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, the husband, in an online chatroom named “without her consent”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to visit his house to assault his wife after he had sedated her into a comatose state.

We expect the panel will declare that in this country, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that permission is personal, not transferred,” declared the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Agreement is received personally and not by proxy from a husband.”

Context

The ex-husband, one of the worst sexual predators in modern French history, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and inviting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the community of Mazan over a duration of many years of their union.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to challenge his verdict. He was initially given a sentence to nine years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any blame”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had initially sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his residence in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was stepping out, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was brought from segregation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the hearing, told the court that the accused had known his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to assault my wife after I’ve put her to sleep unbeknownst to her.”

The courtroom became a central issue for a larger conversation on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to assert he was not guilty and had not engaged in violation, arguing that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the room, his conduct had been permissible.

The jury in the higher court was shown recorded footage of Gisèle Pelicot’s unresponsive form, comatose and breathing heavily in a deep sleep, while a smiling the perpetrator performed assault repeatedly over a period of what police said was 3.5 hours. The judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by suffocation. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan told the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the residence, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” Dogan stated to the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to injure that lady.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was cheered upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters present to stand with her, addressed the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is illegal to rape an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you permission? Not once.”

The victim, 72, 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

The prosecutor, turning to the victim in court, said the defendant's failure to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The public is perhaps in the process of that, perhaps driven by the public consciousness brought by the exposure of your situation.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how societal tolerance was still prevalent in society as part of “outdated” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

Sie told Dogan: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole disturbing social system that you are upholding.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The court heard that his parent was abusive and that Dogan began using drugs aged 10. When Dogan was 17 he was apprehended by authorities for dealing drugs and his parent kicked him out the residence. He spent time in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a laborer but had undergone 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 evidence showed his wife did not know he had regular sexual encounters beyond their union. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his stressful life. Dogan had told a court psychologist that each year he sought paid sex on his birthday. His attorneys told the court he had a medical condition triggered by the pressure of the initial proceedings.