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A man has been found guilty on retrial of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her husband – and has had his jail term raised to 10 years.

Higher Court Case

Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a new trial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A panel of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her residence in Provence in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a family man, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum named “without her consent”, where the husband was looking for men to visit his house to assault his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

We expect the court will affirm that in this country, human rights are also women’s rights – that consent is personal, not transferred,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is obtained directly and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Background

The husband, among the most severe sex offenders in modern French history, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his spouse and bringing in dozens of men to rape her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a duration of almost a decade of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found guilty in a notable trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to contest his sentence. He was initially sentenced to 9 years in prison, a punishment raised on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any accountability”.

Evidence Presented

Dogan had initially sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures 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.

The ex-husband, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily testify at the retrial, told the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “sedated” and he told to men by phone: “I want someone to assault my wife after I’ve sedated her unbeknownst to her.”

The trial became a focus point for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to claim he was innocent and had not engaged in violation, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the bedroom, his conduct had been permissible.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed visual proof of the victim's limp body, comatose and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a grinning Dogan performed assault multiple times over a timeframe of what authorities reported was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unaware and had not consented.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant informed the court the recordings were simply “sex scenes” and rejected it was assault. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not assault. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan stated to the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

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

Victim's Response

The victim, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters present to back her, said to Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is illegal to assault an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you consent? At no time.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an international feminist hero after she waived her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

State's Argument

The prosecutor, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s failure to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is maybe in the course of that, maybe motivated by the collective awareness spurred by the exposure of your case.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how rape culture was still prevalent 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.”

The prosecutor said to the defendant: “For as much as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole unpleasant social system that you are endorsing.”

Personal History

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his father was aggressive and that the defendant began smoking cannabis aged ten. When he was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for drug trafficking and his father forced him to leave of home. He served time in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the primary guardian for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had frequent extramarital activities beyond their marriage. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had told a mental health expert that each year he engaged in paid sex on his birthday. His legal representatives told the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the anxiety of the first trial.