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An individual has been found guilty on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and was given his jail term raised to a decade.

Appeal Trial

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

A jury of four women and five men, joined by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her bedroom in Provence in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that Dogan, a family man, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, the husband, in an digital platform named “without her knowledge”, where the husband was seeking men to visit his house to rape his wife once he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

“We hope the jury will declare that in this country, human rights are also women’s rights – that permission is individual, not delegated,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, her legal representative. “Agreement is received personally and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Background

Dominique Pelicot, one of the worst sexual predators in modern French history, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for drugging his spouse and bringing in dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a span of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Numerous other individuals were found convicted in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to contest his conviction. He was first sentenced to 9 years in prison, a sentence enhanced on Thursday to ten years.

The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any blame”.

Testimony and Proof

Dogan had first sent the husband graphic images and then traveled an hour from his residence in Provence to rape the victim, after telling his wife he was leaving, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was brought 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’m looking for someone to abuse my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her consent.”

The proceedings became a key topic for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to say he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the bedroom, his conduct had been permissible.

The jury in the higher court was displayed visual proof of the victim's unresponsive form, comatose and snoring in a deep sleep, while a grinning Dogan engaged in violation repeatedly over a period of what authorities reported was several hours. The court official said she had been at risk of death by suffocation. The prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant told the court the recordings were simply “sex scenes” and rejected it was violation. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused stated to the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

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

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers assembled to back her, said to Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you violated me? It is illegal to assault an unaware woman. At what point did I give you permission? At no time.”

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

State's Argument

Sie, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take responsibility showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The community is perhaps in the course of that, perhaps motivated by the public consciousness resulting from the publication of your ordeal.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of non-guilt showed how societal tolerance was still common in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor told Dogan: “As long as you reject it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole unpleasant societal structure that you are supporting.”

Personal History

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five moved to the nation of France, where his father worked as a building manager. The court heard that his father was violent and that Dogan began using drugs at the age of ten. When Dogan was 17 he was caught by police for selling narcotics and his parent kicked him out the family house. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had experienced periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had repeated sexual encounters beyond their union. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. The defendant had stated to a evaluator that each year he looked for transactional encounters on his birthday. His attorneys informed the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the anxiety of the first trial.