🔗 Share this article

A defendant was convicted on higher court review of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot after she was sedated by her then-husband – and was given his incarceration period extended to a decade.

Higher Court Case

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

A panel of nine jurors, accompanied by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her bedroom in southern France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a family man, reached out to the victim's spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform named “without her consent”, where the husband was recruiting men to come to his home to assault his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

“We hope the jury will affirm that in this country, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is individual, not delegated,” stated the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is received directly and not via a representative from a husband.”

Background

The ex-husband, a notorious sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to two decades in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and inviting dozens of men to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found culpable in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to challenge his sentence. He was first sentenced to nine years in prison, a sentence increased on Thursday to 10 years.

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

Evidence Presented

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then driven an hour from his town in the region to assault the victim, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was transported from segregation in prison to briefly give evidence at the retrial, stated to the court that the accused had known his wife had been “sedated” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to assault my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her consent.”

The proceedings became a central issue for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to assert he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, stating that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the bedroom, his conduct had been justifiable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with visual proof of the victim's unconscious figure, sedated and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault repeatedly over a duration of what investigators stated was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been unaware and had not consented.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan informed the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was assault. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not assault. He told the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” the accused told the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to hurt that individual.”

Victim's Response

The survivor, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by crowds present to stand with her, told the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It is unlawful to assault an unconscious woman. How could I have give you agreement? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an global icon after she gave up her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's failure to take responsibility showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The community is possibly in the course of that, perhaps driven by the public consciousness spurred by the revelation of your ordeal.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how rape culture was still prevalent in society as part of “outdated” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor addressed the defendant: “While you reject it, it’s not just a person, it’s an complete sordid social system that you are supporting.”

Personal History

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of five relocated to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The court heard that his parent was violent and that the defendant began consuming marijuana at the age of 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was caught by police for drug trafficking and his parent forced him to leave the family house. He served time in prison for drug dealing in his early 20s and had worked as a builder but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a son with special needs, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his spouse did not know he had regular extramarital activities outside their marriage. His defence said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. The defendant had told a mental health expert that annually he engaged in transactional encounters on his special day. His attorneys stated to the court he had a medical condition triggered by the stress of the first trial.