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A defendant has been found guilty on retrial of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her then-husband – and has had his prison sentence increased to a decade.

Appeal Trial

Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a retrial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

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

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a married father, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s then husband, the husband, in an online chatroom named “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was looking for men to visit his house to rape his wife after he had sedated her into a deep sleep.

We expect the court will declare that in this nation, human rights are also women’s rights – that permission is personal, not given by another,” said the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is received directly and not through someone else from a husband.”

Context

The ex-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 bringing in numerous individuals to sexually assault her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a period of almost a decade of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to contest his conviction. He was initially sentenced to nine years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to ten years.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any responsibility”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had first sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his town in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was going out, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily testify at the appeal trial, stated to the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “drugged” and he told to men by phone: “I seek someone to violate my wife after I’ve sedated her without her knowledge.”

The proceedings became a key topic for a larger conversation on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to assert he was innocent and had not committed rape, arguing that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the room, his actions had been permissible.

The jury in the higher court was shown video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, sedated and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation repeatedly over a duration of what police said was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at peril of death by suffocation. The state's case said there was absolute certainty that she had been unaware and had not agreed.

Defendant's Statements

The defendant informed the court the recordings were simply “sex scenes” and rejected it was violation. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. He stated the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan told the court. “I carried on because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to harm that lady.”

Survivor's Statement

The survivor, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters gathered to support her, addressed the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It is unlawful to rape an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you agreement? At no time.”

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

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, addressing the victim in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The public is possibly in the process of that, perhaps motivated by the collective awareness brought by the exposure of your situation.”

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

Sie addressed the defendant: “While you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole unpleasant social system that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 came to France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his father was violent and that the defendant began using drugs at the age of 10. When he was 17 he was caught by authorities for dealing drugs and his father evicted him the family house. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his early 20s and had worked as a laborer but had experienced periods of living on the streets.

He was wed and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had regular sexual encounters outside their union. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his stressful life. The defendant had stated to a evaluator that annually he engaged in transactional encounters on his birthday. His legal representatives told the court he had arthritis resulting from the stress of the first trial.