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An individual was declared guilty on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was sedated by her husband – and has had his prison sentence raised to ten years.

Higher Court Case

The defendant, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a new trial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A panel of four women and five men, joined by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her bedroom in Provence in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a family man, connected with the victim's husband at the time, the husband, in an online chatroom titled “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to visit his house to assault his wife after he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

We trust the court will declare that in this nation, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that consent is individual, not given by another,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, her legal representative. “Permission is received personally and not via a representative from a husband.”

Case History

The husband, among the most severe sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for drugging his then wife and bringing in multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a period of almost a decade of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to appeal against his verdict. He was initially given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a sentence increased on Thursday to 10 years.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any responsibility”.

Evidence Presented

Dogan had initially sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his town in the region to rape the victim, after notifying his wife he was leaving, the evidence indicated.

The ex-husband, who was brought from isolation in prison to briefly testify at the appeal trial, told the court that the accused had known his wife had been “drugged” and he told to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her consent.”

The trial became a central issue for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to claim he was not guilty and had not committed rape, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the room, his conduct had been acceptable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown video evidence of the victim's unconscious figure, comatose and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault on several occasions over a timeframe of what authorities reported was 3.5 hours. The judge said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not consented.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant told the court the videos were simply “sex scenes” and denied it was violation. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He stated the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan informed the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to hurt that lady.”

Survivor's Statement

The victim, who was supported upon leaving court each day by crowds present to back her, said to Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you violated me? It’s a crime to rape an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you agreement? Not once.”

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

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is possibly in the course of that, possibly propelled by the societal understanding spurred by the exposure of your ordeal.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still widespread 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 addressed Dogan: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a person, it’s an complete unpleasant social system that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 came to France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his father was abusive and that the defendant began smoking cannabis aged 10. When he was seventeen he was caught by authorities for drug trafficking and his parent forced him to leave the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had experienced periods of living on the streets.

He was married and had a son with special needs, who he was the primary guardian for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had frequent intimate relations outside their union. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had told a evaluator that each year he looked for transactional encounters on his birthday. His attorneys stated to the court he had a medical condition triggered by the pressure of the original case.