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A man was declared guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her husband – and was given his prison sentence raised to ten years.

Retrial Proceedings

The defendant, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a retrial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her bedroom in the south of France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a family man, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, the husband, in an digital platform titled “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was looking for men to visit his house to assault his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a deep sleep.

We expect the court will declare that in this society, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that consent is personal, not given by another,” said the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Permission is received directly and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Background

The husband, a notorious sex offenders in recent French history, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for drugging his spouse and bringing in multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to challenge his verdict. He was originally handed a term to nine years in prison, a punishment raised on Thursday to ten years.

The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any accountability”.

Testimony and Proof

Dogan had initially sent the husband graphic images and then traveled an hour from his residence in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily give evidence at the appeal trial, told the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he told to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.”

The courtroom became a focus point for a broader debate on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to say he was innocent and had not committed rape, stating that because the victim's husband had invited him into the bedroom, his actions had been permissible.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was shown visual proof of the victim's limp body, unconscious and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation repeatedly over a timeframe of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been unaware and had not given permission.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan informed the court the recordings were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was violation. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He stated the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I tried to halt,” Dogan informed the court. “I proceeded because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to injure that lady.”

Survivor's Statement

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon leaving court each day by onlookers assembled to support her, addressed the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you assaulted me? It is unlawful to assault an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you agreement? Not once.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she waived her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

State's Argument

Sie, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s failure to take responsibility showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. Society is maybe in the course of that, maybe driven by the collective awareness spurred by the revelation of your situation.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still prevalent 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 addressed Dogan: “While you reject it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole sordid cultural framework that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to the nation of France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his father was aggressive and that the defendant began consuming marijuana at the age of 10. When he was seventeen he was apprehended by police for selling narcotics and his father kicked him out of home. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his twenties and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of living on the streets.

He was married and had a son with a genetic condition, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had frequent sexual encounters outside their union. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had stated to a court psychologist that each year he looked for paid sex on his special day. His lawyers stated to the court he had arthritis triggered by the stress of the original case.