🔗 Share this article

A defendant has been found guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was sedated by her then-husband – and was given his incarceration period extended 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 appeals court in Nîmes.

A panel of five men and four women, accompanied by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her bedroom in the south of France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a family man, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, the husband, in an digital platform called “without her consent”, where the husband was seeking men to enter his residence to assault his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a unconscious state.

We trust the jury will declare that in this nation, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is personal, not transferred,” said the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Consent is received personally and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Case History

Dominique Pelicot, a notorious sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and inviting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the community 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 only man to appeal against his conviction. He was originally handed a term to 9 years in prison, a sentence raised on Thursday to 10 years.

The chief prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any blame”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had initially sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his village in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was transported from segregation in prison to briefly give evidence at the retrial, stated to the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her without her knowledge.”

The trial became a focus point for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to say he was innocent and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the bedroom, his conduct had been acceptable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown video evidence of the victim's unresponsive form, unconscious and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation on several occasions over a duration of what authorities reported was several hours. The court official said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by choking. The state's case said there was absolute certainty that she had been unaware and had not given permission.

Defendant's Statements

The defendant informed the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and disputed it was violation. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not assault. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him to the residence, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I tried to halt,” the accused told the court. “I carried on because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to harm that lady.”

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers present to support her, addressed the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you violated me? It is illegal to rape an unaware woman. When did I ever give you consent? At no time.”

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

State's Argument

The prosecutor, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is maybe in the midst of that, perhaps motivated by the collective awareness resulting from the publication of your case.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how societal tolerance was still common 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 ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor addressed Dogan: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire sordid social system that you are supporting.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five relocated to France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his parent was violent and that Dogan began using drugs aged 10. When Dogan was 17 he was caught by authorities for selling narcotics and his parent evicted him of home. He spent time in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the primary guardian for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had repeated sexual encounters outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his stressful life. Dogan had stated to a mental health expert that each year he looked for commercial sex on his birthday. His legal representatives told the court he had joint inflammation caused by the stress of the original case.