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A defendant was convicted on higher court review of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was sedated by her then-husband – and was given his incarceration period raised to ten years.

Higher Court Case

Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a appeal hearing this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A jury of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her bedroom in Provence in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that the accused, a married father, connected with the victim's spouse, the husband, in an online chatroom called “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was seeking men to visit his house to rape his wife after he had drugged her into a unconscious state.

We expect the jury will say loud and clear that in this society, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is individual, not delegated,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Consent is secured personally and not by proxy from a husband.”

Case History

The husband, among the most severe sex offenders in modern French history, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his spouse and inviting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a duration of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Numerous other individuals were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to contest his verdict. He was first given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a punishment raised on Thursday to 10 years.

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

Testimony and Proof

Dogan had initially sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his village in the region to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was going out, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the hearing, told the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “incapacitated” and he told to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to assault my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”

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

The jury in the higher court was shown recorded footage of the victim's unconscious figure, comatose and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator committed rape on several occasions over a period of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The presiding judge said she had been at peril of death by suffocation. The prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been incapacitated and had not given permission.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan informed the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and disputed it was violation. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not assault. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him to the residence, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” Dogan told the court. “I proceeded because he reassured me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to injure that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters gathered to stand with her, addressed Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It is illegal to rape an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you permission? At no time.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she relinquished her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, speaking to the victim in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take accountability showed that: “The shame remains. The public is possibly in the process of that, maybe driven by the collective awareness brought by the revelation of your case.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “outdated” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

The prosecutor told Dogan: “While you reject it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole sordid cultural framework that you are upholding.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to the nation of France, where his father worked as a building manager. The court heard that his father was violent and that Dogan began consuming marijuana at the age of ten. When he was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for selling narcotics and his parent evicted him the residence. He was incarcerated in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had undergone periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had regular extramarital activities beyond their union. His defence said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. Dogan had informed a court psychologist that each year he engaged in commercial sex on his birthday. His attorneys told the court he had arthritis caused by the stress of the initial proceedings.