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A defendant was convicted on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her then-husband – and received his prison sentence extended to a decade.

Appeal Trial

Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his first conviction last year, underwent a new trial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

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

The testimony revealed that the accused, a married father, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, the husband, in an internet forum called “without her consent”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to visit his house to rape his wife after he had drugged her into a unconscious state.

“We hope the court will declare that in this country, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that permission is individual, not transferred,” stated the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is secured directly and not by proxy from a husband.”

Context

The ex-husband, a notorious sex offenders in modern French history, was sentenced to two decades in prison last year for sedating his then wife and soliciting numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a duration of nearly ten years of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to contest his conviction. He was first given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a punishment raised on Thursday to ten years.

The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “completely denies to take any responsibility”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had initially sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his residence in Provence to assault the victim, after notifying his wife he was going out, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was brought from segregation in prison to temporarily testify at the hearing, stated to the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her unbeknownst to her.”

The courtroom became a central issue for a broader debate on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to assert he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because the victim's husband had invited him into the room, his actions had been justifiable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown video evidence of the victim's unresponsive form, comatose and snoring in a deep sleep, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault on several occasions over a timeframe of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at danger of death by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unaware and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan informed the court the footage were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” the accused told the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to harm that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by crowds present to stand with her, said to the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It’s a crime to assault an incapacitated woman. How could I have give you consent? Not once.”

The victim, 72, became an international feminist hero after she relinquished her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. Society is possibly in the process of that, maybe driven by the public consciousness brought by the publication of your ordeal.”

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

The prosecutor told the defendant: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole sordid social system that you are endorsing.”

Personal History

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to the nation of France, where his father worked as a building manager. The court heard that his parent was abusive and that the defendant began consuming marijuana aged 10. When he was 17 he was caught by authorities for selling narcotics and his father forced him to leave of home. He served time in prison for narcotics offenses in his early 20s and had worked as a laborer but had experienced periods of living on the streets.

He was wed and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a educational cafeteria. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had repeated sexual encounters outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had informed a court psychologist that annually he sought paid sex on his special day. His lawyers informed the court he had joint inflammation caused by the stress of the first trial.