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A defendant was convicted on higher court review of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was sedated by her husband – and received his incarceration period extended to 10 years.

Appeal Trial

Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had appealed his first conviction last year, experienced a retrial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A jury of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her home in the south of France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that Dogan, a married father, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom called “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was seeking men to come to his home to rape his wife once he had sedated her into a comatose state.

We trust the panel will say loud and clear that in this nation, human rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is individual, not given by another,” declared the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Consent is secured personally and not via a representative from a husband.”

Case History

The husband, one of the worst sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his spouse and soliciting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to appeal against his sentence. He was first given a sentence to nine years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to 10 years.

The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any accountability”.

Courtroom Details

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his village in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was leaving, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was brought from segregation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the hearing, told the court that the accused had known his wife had been “sedated” and he told to men by phone: “I want someone to assault my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious unbeknownst to her.”

The courtroom became a focus point for a broader debate on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to assert he was innocent and had not committed rape, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had welcomed him into the residence, his behavior had been justifiable.

The jury in the higher court was shown recorded footage of the victim's unresponsive form, unconscious and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a smiling the perpetrator performed assault repeatedly over a period of what police said was 3.5 hours. The judge said she had been at danger of death by suffocation. The prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Defendant's Statements

The defendant told the court the footage were simply “sexual encounters” and disputed it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He declared the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the residence, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused stated to the court. “I continued because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to harm that lady.”

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds gathered to stand with her, told Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you assaulted me? It is illegal to assault an unconscious woman. When did I ever give you consent? Never.”

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

State's Argument

Sie, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's refusal to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The public is possibly in the course of that, possibly propelled by the collective awareness brought by the publication of your case.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how societal tolerance was still common in society as part of “outdated” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

Sie said to the defendant: “While you reject it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire sordid societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Biographical Details

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five moved to France, where his father worked as a building manager. The testimony revealed that his father was abusive and that Dogan began smoking cannabis aged ten. When Dogan was 17 he was stopped by police for dealing drugs and his father forced him to leave the residence. He spent time in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had faced periods of living on the streets.

He was married and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had frequent extramarital activities beyond their marriage. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. Dogan had stated to a court psychologist that each year he looked for transactional encounters on his birthday. His legal representatives informed the court he had arthritis resulting from the anxiety of the original case.