🔗 Share this article

A defendant has been found guilty on retrial of raping Gisele Pelicot after she was sedated by her then-husband – and was given his jail term increased to 10 years.

Appeal Trial

Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his first conviction last year, underwent a appeal hearing this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A jury of nine jurors, accompanied by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her residence in Provence in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that the accused, a family man, reached out to the victim's then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom called “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was seeking men to enter his residence to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a deep sleep.

We expect the jury will affirm that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that agreement is individual, not transferred,” stated the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Consent is obtained directly and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Context

The husband, one of the worst sexual predators in modern French history, was handed a sentence to 20 years in prison last year for drugging his then wife and soliciting numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the town of Mazan over a span of many years of their union.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to contest his conviction. He was initially sentenced to nine years in prison, a sentence enhanced on Thursday to ten years.

The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any blame”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had first sent the husband graphic images and then traveled an hour from his town in Provence to assault the victim, after informing his wife he was going out, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was brought from segregation in prison to briefly testify at the hearing, informed the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “drugged” and he told to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to assault my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.”

The courtroom became a focus point for a larger conversation on sexual violence norms in society as the defendant continued to assert he was blameless and had not engaged in violation, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had welcomed him into the room, his conduct had been justifiable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with video evidence of the victim's unconscious figure, comatose and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation multiple times over a duration of what authorities reported was several hours. The judge said she had been at peril of death by suffocation. The state's case said there was absolute certainty that she had been incapacitated and had not given permission.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant informed the court the videos were simply “sex scenes” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I tried to halt,” the accused informed the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to injure that woman.”

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon departing the trial each day by supporters gathered to back her, addressed the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you admit you raped me? It is unlawful to assault an incapacitated woman. How could I have give you consent? At no time.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an global icon after she gave up her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

State's Argument

The prosecutor, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. The public is maybe in the midst of that, maybe driven by the collective awareness resulting from the publication of your ordeal.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how societal tolerance was still common in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

Sie addressed the defendant: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole sordid social system that you are upholding.”

Personal History

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five moved to France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The evidence indicated that his parent was violent and that Dogan began using drugs aged ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was stopped by police for dealing drugs and his parent evicted him the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had experienced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a son with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had repeated extramarital activities outside their marriage. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. Dogan had told a evaluator that once a year he engaged in paid sex on his special day. His lawyers stated to the court he had arthritis triggered by the stress of the first trial.