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

Appeal Trial

The defendant, 44, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a appeal hearing this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of five men and four women, joined by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her home in southern France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a married father, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, the husband, in an digital platform named “without her consent”, where the husband was looking for men to visit his house to assault his wife after he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

“We hope the panel will declare that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that consent is personal, not delegated,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, her legal representative. “Agreement is obtained directly and not through someone else from a husband.”

Case History

The husband, a notorious sexual predators in modern French history, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his wife at the time and bringing in dozens of men to rape her in her home in the community of Mazan over a span of many years of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found culpable in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to appeal against his conviction. He was originally sentenced to 9 years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to a decade.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any accountability”.

Testimony and Proof

Dogan had first sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then traveled an hour from his town in Provence to rape the victim, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the evidence indicated.

The ex-husband, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to briefly provide testimony at the retrial, told the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to assault my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.”

The trial became a focus point for a broader debate on sexual violence norms in society as the defendant continued to assert he was blameless and had not engaged in violation, contending that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the bedroom, his conduct had been acceptable.

The panel in the higher court was displayed video evidence of the victim's unresponsive form, comatose and breathing heavily in a deep sleep, while a grinning the perpetrator committed rape on several occasions over a period of what authorities reported was 3.5 hours. The judge said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by suffocation. The prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unaware and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan informed the court the recordings were simply “sexual encounters” and disputed it was assault. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him to the house, and therefore it was OK. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I tried to halt,” Dogan stated to the court. “I carried on because he reassured me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to injure that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by onlookers assembled to support her, told Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is illegal to rape an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you permission? At no time.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an symbol of resistance after she gave up her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

State's Argument

The prosecutor, speaking to the victim in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take accountability showed that: “The shame remains. Society is perhaps in the process of that, maybe propelled by the public consciousness spurred by the exposure of your situation.”

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

The prosecutor addressed Dogan: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole sordid societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Biographical Details

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his father was abusive and that the defendant began smoking cannabis at the age of 10. When Dogan was 17 he was apprehended by authorities for selling narcotics and his father forced him to leave the family house. He served time in prison for narcotics offenses in his early 20s and had worked as a laborer but had undergone periods of living on the streets.

He was wed and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a educational cafeteria. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had repeated extramarital activities outside their union. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. Dogan had stated to a evaluator that once a year he looked for commercial sex on his birthday. His attorneys informed the court he had arthritis resulting from the anxiety of the first trial.