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An individual was convicted on appeal of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was sedated by her spouse – and has had his incarceration period extended to 10 years.

Appeal Trial

The defendant, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had appealed his first conviction last year, underwent a appeal hearing this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

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

The testimony revealed that the accused, a married father, connected with the victim's then husband, the husband, in an digital platform titled “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was looking for men to visit his house to rape his wife after he had drugged her into a deep sleep.

We expect the jury will say loud and clear that in this nation, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is individual, not transferred,” declared the victim's attorney, her legal representative. “Agreement is obtained personally and not by proxy from a husband.”

Background

The husband, a notorious sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for sedating his then wife and bringing in numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a duration of nearly ten years of their union.

Fifty other men were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to challenge his conviction. He was initially given a sentence to nine years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to a decade.

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

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his village in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the hearing, 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 assault my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her consent.”

The proceedings became a focus point for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to say he was blameless and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the residence, his behavior had been justifiable.

The jury in the higher court was shown visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s unresponsive form, unconscious and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning Dogan committed rape multiple times over a period of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by choking. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been incapacitated and had not given permission.

Defendant's Statements

The defendant informed the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was violation. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was OK. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I tried to halt,” the accused told the court. “I proceeded because he persuaded me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to injure that woman.”

Survivor's Statement

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon departing the trial each day by crowds assembled to stand with her, told Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you assaulted me? It’s a crime to assault an unaware woman. How could I have give you permission? At no time.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she relinquished her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

State's Argument

Sie, speaking to the victim in court, said the defendant's failure to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. The community is perhaps in the process of that, perhaps motivated by the public consciousness spurred by the revelation of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still common in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “male domination”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

The prosecutor addressed Dogan: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an complete sordid societal structure that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five came to France, where his father worked as a building manager. The testimony revealed that his parent was abusive and that Dogan began using drugs aged 10. When he was seventeen he was caught by authorities for selling narcotics and his parent kicked him out the residence. He was incarcerated in prison for drug dealing in his early 20s and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of living on the streets.

He was married and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his wife did not know he had frequent sexual encounters beyond their union. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his stressful life. Dogan had stated to a evaluator that each year he looked for commercial sex on his birthday. His legal representatives stated to the court he had a medical condition resulting from the stress of the first trial.