🔗 Share this article

A defendant has been found guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and was given his jail term extended to ten years.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his first conviction last year, experienced a appeal hearing this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

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

The testimony revealed that the accused, a married father, reached out to the victim's then husband, the husband, in an online chatroom named “without her consent”, where Pelicot was looking for men to enter his residence to assault his wife after he had sedated her into a comatose state.

“We hope the court will declare that in this society, human rights are also rights of women – that consent is individual, not given by another,” declared the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is secured personally and not via a representative from a husband.”

Case History

The ex-husband, one of the worst sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for drugging his spouse and inviting dozens of men to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a period of many years of their union.

Fifty other men were found culpable in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to appeal against his sentence. He was first handed a term to nine years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to ten years.

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

Courtroom Details

The defendant had first sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his residence in the region to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was stepping out, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was brought from isolation in prison to briefly testify at the hearing, told the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I seek someone to assault my wife after I’ve sedated her without her knowledge.”

The trial became a key topic for a broader debate on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to assert he was blameless and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because the victim's husband had invited him into the room, his behavior had been justifiable.

The panel in the higher court was shown recorded footage of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, unconscious and snoring in a deep sleep, while a smiling Dogan performed assault on several occasions over a period of what police said was 3.5 hours. The presiding judge said she had been at danger of death by choking. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan informed the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was assault. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not assault. He told the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the residence, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” the accused told the court. “I proceeded because he convinced me.”

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

Survivor's Statement

The survivor, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds gathered to back her, told Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It is illegal to rape an unconscious woman. When did I ever give you permission? Never.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an global icon after she relinquished her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

The prosecutor, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take accountability showed that: “The shame remains. The community is perhaps in the process of that, perhaps propelled by the collective awareness brought by the exposure of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how rape culture was still common in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

The prosecutor said to Dogan: “As long as you reject it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole sordid social system that you are endorsing.”

Personal History

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of France, where his father worked as a building manager. The testimony revealed that his parent was violent and that the defendant began smoking cannabis aged ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was apprehended by authorities for selling narcotics and his father evicted him the family house. He spent time in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a son with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had frequent sexual encounters outside their marriage. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his stressful life. The defendant had told a court psychologist that each year he looked for transactional encounters on his birthday. His legal representatives informed the court he had arthritis resulting from the pressure of the original case.