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A man was convicted on higher court review of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her then-husband – and was given his jail term extended to ten years.

Retrial Proceedings

The defendant, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a new trial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A panel of four women and five men, joined by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her bedroom in the south of France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a married father, made contact with the victim's spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom called “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was recruiting men to come to his home to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a deep sleep.

“We hope the panel will affirm that in this country, human rights are also rights of women – that permission is personal, not delegated,” declared the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Agreement is obtained personally and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Context

The husband, a notorious sexual predators in recent French history, was handed a sentence to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his then wife and soliciting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a period of many years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found culpable in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to contest his sentence. He was originally sentenced to nine years in prison, a sentence increased on Thursday to a decade.

The chief prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “completely denies to take any blame”.

Evidence Presented

Dogan had first sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his village in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was leaving, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the retrial, 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 assault my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious unbeknownst to her.”

The courtroom became a central issue for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to assert he was blameless and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the bedroom, his behavior had been justifiable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, unconscious and snoring in a comatose state, while a smiling the perpetrator performed assault on several occasions over a period of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The judge said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state's case said there was no question that she had been unaware and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

The defendant told the court the footage were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan told the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”

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

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was cheered upon leaving court each day by supporters gathered to support her, said to the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you violated me? It is illegal to assault an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you permission? At no time.”

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

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is perhaps in the process of that, maybe motivated by the collective awareness brought by the publication of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “archaic” forms of “male domination”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor told the defendant: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole unpleasant social system that you are supporting.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was originated from the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to France, where his father worked as a building manager. The testimony revealed that his parent was abusive and that Dogan began smoking cannabis at the age of ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was apprehended by authorities for dealing drugs and his father evicted him the family house. He served time in prison for narcotics offenses in his early 20s and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of living on the streets.

He was married and had a son with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The court heard his wife did not know he had repeated sexual encounters outside their union. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. Dogan had told a mental health expert that once a year he engaged in transactional encounters on his birthday. His lawyers stated to the court he had a medical condition resulting from the pressure of the first trial.