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A defendant was declared guilty on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was sedated by her spouse – and received his prison sentence increased to 10 years.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his first conviction last year, underwent a new trial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A jury of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her residence in southern France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a married father, connected with the victim's husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum named “without her consent”, where the husband was seeking men to enter his residence to assault his wife after he had drugged her into a deep sleep.

We expect the court will declare that in this country, human rights are also rights of women – that agreement is individual, not delegated,” stated the victim's attorney, her legal representative. “Consent is received personally and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Case History

The husband, one of the worst sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and bringing in multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the town of Mazan over a period of many years of their union.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to contest his verdict. He was initially given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to a decade.

The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any blame”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then traveled an hour from his town in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was going out, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was transported from isolation in prison to briefly give evidence at the hearing, stated to the court that the accused had known his wife had been “incapacitated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to abuse my wife after I’ve put her to sleep unbeknownst to her.”

The trial became a focus point for a broader debate on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to claim he was innocent and had not engaged in violation, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the residence, his actions had been permissible.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was shown visual proof of the victim's unresponsive form, comatose and breathing heavily in a deep sleep, while a smiling the perpetrator committed rape on several occasions over a timeframe of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at risk of death by asphyxiation. The state's case said there was no doubt that she had been unaware and had not agreed.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant told the court the videos were simply “sexual encounters” and rejected it was violation. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He declared the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” the accused informed the court. “I continued because he reassured me.”

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

Survivor's Statement

The victim, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by onlookers gathered to stand with her, told Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It is illegal to rape an unaware woman. When did I ever give you permission? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she relinquished her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s failure to take accountability showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The public is perhaps in the course of that, perhaps propelled by the societal understanding brought by the publication of your ordeal.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor said to Dogan: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a person, it’s an complete sordid societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Biographical Details

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 came to France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The court heard that his father was violent and that the defendant began consuming marijuana at the age of 10. When Dogan was 17 he was apprehended by police for drug trafficking and his father evicted him the residence. He spent time in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of living on the streets.

He was married and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had repeated intimate relations beyond their union. His defence said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. The defendant had told a evaluator that once a year he looked for paid sex on his birthday. His attorneys stated to the court he had arthritis caused by the anxiety of the original case.