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An individual was declared guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and has had his prison sentence raised to ten years.

Retrial Proceedings

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

A jury of nine jurors, joined by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her bedroom in Provence in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The testimony revealed that the accused, a married father, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, the husband, in an online chatroom called “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was looking for men to visit his house to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a deep sleep.

We expect the court will say loud and clear that in this country, human rights are also women’s rights – that consent is individual, not delegated,” stated the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is secured directly and not by proxy from a husband.”

Background

The husband, a notorious sex offenders in modern French history, was handed a sentence to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his spouse and bringing in dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a duration of many years of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found convicted in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to challenge his conviction. He was first given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to a decade.

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

Evidence Presented

The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his village in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was going out, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the appeal trial, informed the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “incapacitated” and he told to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”

The courtroom became a central issue for a broader debate on societal attitudes 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 bedroom, his actions had been permissible.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed recorded footage of the victim's limp body, comatose and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning Dogan performed assault on several occasions over a timeframe of what investigators stated was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at peril of death by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant told the court the footage were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the home, 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 persuaded me.”

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

Pelicot's Words

Gisèle Pelicot, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by onlookers present to support her, told Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When are you going to recognise you assaulted me? It is illegal to rape an incapacitated woman. How could I have give you permission? Never.”

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

Prosecutor's Remarks

The prosecutor, speaking to the victim in court, said the defendant's failure to take accountability showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The public is possibly in the process of that, maybe propelled by the societal understanding spurred by the revelation 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: “We need to change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor addressed the defendant: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire sordid societal structure that you are upholding.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was originated from Turkey and at the age of five moved to the nation of France, where his father worked as a building manager. The court heard that his father was abusive and that the defendant began smoking cannabis at the age of ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was caught by authorities for selling narcotics and his father forced him to leave of home. He was incarcerated in prison for drug dealing in his early 20s and had worked as a builder but had experienced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had repeated extramarital activities beyond their union. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had informed a court psychologist that annually he sought paid sex on his birthday. His attorneys told the court he had arthritis triggered by the anxiety of the initial proceedings.