🔗 Share this article

A defendant has been found guilty on higher court review of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her husband – and was given his prison sentence raised to 10 years.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a new trial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A jury of five men and four women, accompanied by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her bedroom in southern France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a married father, connected with the victim's then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum named “without her consent”, where the husband was seeking men to enter his residence to rape his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

“We hope the jury will affirm that in this country, human rights are also rights of women – that permission is individual, not delegated,” said the victim's attorney, her legal representative. “Agreement is received directly and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Case History

The husband, one of the worst sexual predators in modern French history, was given a prison term to two decades in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and soliciting dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the town of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to challenge his sentence. He was originally given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a punishment enhanced on Thursday to 10 years.

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

Evidence Presented

The defendant had first sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his residence in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to briefly provide testimony at the appeal trial, told the court that the accused had known his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to violate my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The trial became a central issue for a larger conversation on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to claim he was innocent and had not perpetrated assault, stating that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the residence, his behavior had been acceptable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, comatose and snoring in a comatose state, while a smiling the perpetrator engaged in violation multiple times over a period of what authorities reported was several hours. The court official said she had been at peril of death by asphyxiation. The prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant informed the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was violation. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the house, and therefore it was OK. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I tried to halt,” the accused informed the court. “I carried on because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to harm that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was applauded upon leaving court each day by supporters present to back her, said to Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you assaulted me? It’s a crime to rape an unconscious woman. When did I ever give you agreement? At no time.”

The victim, 72, became an global icon after she waived her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s failure to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The public is perhaps in the course of that, perhaps propelled by the collective awareness brought by the exposure of your situation.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how rape culture was still prevalent in society as part of “archaic” forms of “male domination”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor said to the defendant: “For as much as you reject it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole sordid cultural framework that you are supporting.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 came to the nation of France, where his father worked as a concierge. The evidence indicated that his father was abusive and that the defendant began consuming marijuana at the age of 10. When he was seventeen he was caught by police for selling narcotics and his father evicted him of home. He spent time in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a builder but had experienced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a child with special needs, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had regular extramarital activities outside their union. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his stressful life. The defendant had informed a mental health expert that annually he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His legal representatives stated to the court he had joint inflammation triggered by the anxiety of the initial proceedings.