🔗 Share this article

A defendant was convicted on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot following she was sedated by her spouse – and was given his jail term increased to 10 years.

Retrial Proceedings

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

A panel of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her bedroom in southern France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that Dogan, a family man, reached out to the victim's then husband, the husband, in an internet forum titled “without her consent”, where Pelicot 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 court will declare that in this society, human rights are also rights of women – that consent is individual, not delegated,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, her legal representative. “Agreement is received personally and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Background

The husband, among the most severe sex offenders in recent French history, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for incapacitating his then wife and soliciting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the community of Mazan over a span of many years of their union.

Fifty other men were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to appeal against his sentence. He was originally sentenced to nine years in prison, a punishment enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any accountability”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had initially 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 court heard.

Pelicot, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to briefly testify at the hearing, stated to the court that the accused had known his wife had been “sedated” and he told to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep unbeknownst to her.”

The trial became a central issue for a larger conversation on sexual violence norms in society as the defendant continued to claim he was not guilty and had not committed rape, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the room, his actions had been acceptable.

The panel in the higher court was displayed video evidence of the victim's unresponsive form, sedated and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator committed rape on several occasions over a period of what police said was three and a half hours. The presiding judge said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The state's case said there was no question that she had been unaware and had not agreed.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan stated to the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was violation. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He declared the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the home, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan informed the court. “I proceeded because he convinced me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to hurt that individual.”

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon leaving court each day by supporters gathered to back her, told the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you admit you violated me? It’s a crime to assault an unaware woman. When did I ever give you permission? At no time.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she relinquished her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, speaking to the victim in court, said Dogan’s failure to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is maybe in the midst of that, maybe driven by the societal understanding brought by the revelation of your case.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how societal tolerance was still widespread in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

Sie told Dogan: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole sordid cultural framework that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his father was abusive and that the defendant began smoking cannabis aged ten. When he was seventeen he was apprehended by authorities for dealing drugs and his father forced him to leave the family house. He spent time in prison for drug dealing in his early 20s and had worked as a construction worker but had faced periods of homelessness.

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 testimony revealed his wife did not know he had regular intimate relations beyond their marriage. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. The defendant had stated to a evaluator that each year he engaged in paid sex on his birthday. His attorneys stated to the court he had a medical condition triggered by the anxiety of the first trial.