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A man has been found guilty on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her spouse – and has had his jail term raised to ten years.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a new trial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

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

The evidence showed that the accused, a family man, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, the husband, in an internet forum titled “without her knowledge”, where the husband was recruiting men to visit his house to assault his wife after he had drugged her into a comatose state.

We trust the panel will declare that in this society, human rights are also rights of women – that consent is individual, not transferred,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, her legal representative. “Agreement is obtained personally and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Context

The ex-husband, a notorious sexual predators in modern French history, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his then wife and soliciting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the town of Mazan over a duration of almost a decade of their marriage.

Numerous other individuals were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to appeal against his sentence. He was first handed a term to 9 years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to 10 years.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any responsibility”.

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had initially sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his residence in Provence to rape the victim, after notifying his wife he was stepping out, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was brought from segregation in prison to briefly testify at the appeal trial, told the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “incapacitated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.”

The proceedings became a focus point for a broader debate on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to assert he was not guilty and had not committed rape, stating that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the room, his actions had been permissible.

The jury in the higher court was presented with recorded footage of the victim's limp body, unconscious and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a smiling Dogan engaged in violation repeatedly over a timeframe of what investigators stated was several hours. The presiding judge said she had been at danger of death by suffocation. The state's case said there was absolute certainty that she had been incapacitated and had not given permission.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan informed the court the recordings were simply “sexual encounters” and rejected it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He declared the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the residence, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan told the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to harm that lady.”

Victim's Response

The victim, who was cheered upon leaving court each day by onlookers assembled to stand with her, said to the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It’s a crime to rape an unaware woman. At what point did I give you consent? Not once.”

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

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is maybe in the midst of that, possibly driven by the societal understanding spurred by the publication of your case.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still common in society as part of “archaic” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor said to Dogan: “While you deny it, it’s not just a person, it’s an complete disturbing social system that you are endorsing.”

Personal History

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five relocated to France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his father was violent and that the defendant began consuming marijuana aged ten. When he was seventeen he was apprehended by police for drug trafficking and his parent forced him to leave the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his twenties and had worked as a builder but had experienced periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a child with special needs, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The court heard his wife did not know he had regular sexual encounters beyond their union. His defence said this was his way of coping with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had stated to a mental health expert that once a year he engaged in paid sex on his birthday. His attorneys told the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the pressure of the initial proceedings.