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A man was convicted on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was sedated by her husband – and has had his incarceration period increased to ten years.

Higher Court Case

Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a retrial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

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

The court heard that the accused, a married father, reached out to the victim's spouse, the husband, in an digital platform called “without her consent”, where the husband was recruiting men to enter his residence to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a deep sleep.

We expect the panel will say loud and clear that in this society, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that permission is individual, not transferred,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is obtained personally and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Background

The husband, among the most severe sex offenders in recent French history, was handed a sentence to 20 years in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and soliciting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a duration of many years of their marriage.

Numerous other individuals were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to appeal against his sentence. He was first handed a term to 9 years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to a decade.

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

Evidence Presented

The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then driven an hour from his village in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was going out, the evidence indicated.

The ex-husband, who was transported from segregation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the retrial, informed the court that the accused had known his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to assault my wife after I’ve sedated her without her knowledge.”

The courtroom became a key topic for a larger conversation on sexual violence norms in society as the defendant continued to say he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the bedroom, his conduct had been acceptable.

The jury in the higher court was presented with recorded footage of Gisèle Pelicot’s unresponsive form, unconscious and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a smiling the perpetrator performed assault multiple times over a period of what police said was 3.5 hours. The judge said she had been at peril of death by suffocation. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan told the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I attempted to cease,” the accused stated to the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to harm that lady.”

Victim's Response

The survivor, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers assembled to stand with her, said to the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you admit you raped me? It is unlawful to assault an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you agreement? Never.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she gave up her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

State's Argument

The prosecutor, speaking to the victim in court, said Dogan’s failure to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is perhaps in the course of that, perhaps propelled by the public consciousness brought by the publication of your case.”

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

Sie told the defendant: “As long as you reject it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an complete disturbing social system that you are supporting.”

Personal History

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five moved to France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his father was abusive and that the defendant began using drugs aged ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was stopped by police for dealing drugs and his parent kicked him out the family house. He served time in prison for trafficking in his early 20s and had worked as a laborer but had experienced periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The court heard his wife did not know he had regular extramarital activities outside their marriage. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his stressful life. The defendant had informed a mental health expert that annually he engaged in commercial sex on his birthday. His lawyers told the court he had joint inflammation triggered by the stress of the original case.