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A defendant was convicted on appeal of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her spouse – and received his prison sentence extended to ten years.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a retrial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of nine jurors, accompanied by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her home in Provence in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that Dogan, a family man, made contact with the victim's husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform called “without her consent”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to visit his house to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

“We hope the jury will declare that in this society, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that permission is individual, not transferred,” declared the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Permission is obtained directly and not through someone else from a husband.”

Case History

The husband, one of the worst sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to two decades in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and bringing in multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a duration of almost a decade of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found culpable in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to challenge his sentence. He was initially handed a term to nine years in prison, a sentence increased on Thursday to 10 years.

The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any responsibility”.

Courtroom Details

The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his residence in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was going out, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was brought from isolation in prison to briefly provide testimony at the retrial, stated to the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her without her knowledge.”

The trial became a central issue for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to assert he was innocent and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had welcomed him into the bedroom, his behavior had been permissible.

The panel in the higher court was displayed visual proof of the victim's unconscious figure, sedated and snoring in a deep sleep, while a smiling the perpetrator committed rape multiple times over a duration of what authorities reported was 3.5 hours. The judge said she had been at danger of death by suffocation. The state's case said there was absolute certainty that she had been unaware and had not consented.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan informed the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the house, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan stated to the court. “I carried on because he reassured me.”

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

Survivor's Statement

The victim, who was supported upon leaving court each day by crowds assembled to stand with her, told the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you assaulted me? It is unlawful to assault an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you agreement? Not once.”

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

State's Argument

Sie, turning to the victim in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is maybe in the process of that, maybe driven by the collective awareness resulting from the publication of your ordeal.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a culture of consent.”

Sie addressed the defendant: “For as much as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire unpleasant cultural framework that you are supporting.”

Personal History

The accused was originated from Turkey and at the age of five moved to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The court heard that his parent was violent and that Dogan began consuming marijuana aged 10. When he was 17 he was stopped by police for drug trafficking and his parent kicked him out the family house. He spent time in prison for drug dealing in his early 20s and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of living on the streets.

He was wed and had a child with special needs, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had regular intimate relations outside their union. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his stressful life. Dogan had stated to a evaluator that annually he sought paid sex on his special day. His attorneys informed the court he had a medical condition caused by the pressure of the original case.