🔗 Share this article

An individual has been found guilty on higher court review of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was sedated by her spouse – and was given his incarceration period increased to a decade.

Higher Court Case

Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a new trial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A jury of four women and five men, joined by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her bedroom in southern France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a family man, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum titled “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was looking for men to come to his home to rape his wife once he had drugged her into a unconscious state.

We expect the panel will affirm that in this society, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that permission is personal, not transferred,” stated the victim's attorney, her legal representative. “Agreement is received personally and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Context

The husband, among the most severe sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was handed a sentence to two decades 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.

Fifty other men were found culpable in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to contest his sentence. He was originally handed a term to 9 years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any accountability”.

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had first sent the husband graphic images and then traveled an hour from his town in the region to assault the victim, after telling his wife he was going out, the court heard.

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

The courtroom became a key topic for a broader debate on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to claim he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the residence, his conduct had been justifiable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with recorded footage of the victim's unconscious figure, unconscious and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a smiling the perpetrator committed rape repeatedly over a period of what police said was three and a half hours. The presiding judge said she had been at risk of death by asphyxiation. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

The defendant informed the court the videos were simply “sexual encounters” and disputed it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He declared the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him to the house, and therefore it was OK. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan stated to the court. “I proceeded because he persuaded me.”

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

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was cheered upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds present to support her, said to Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It is illegal to assault an unaware woman. At what point did I give you agreement? At no time.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an global icon after she waived her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take accountability showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The public is possibly in the course of that, perhaps propelled by the public consciousness resulting from the revelation of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how societal tolerance was still prevalent in society as part of “outdated” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor addressed the defendant: “For as much as you reject it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole unpleasant social system that you are upholding.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to France, where his father worked as a concierge. The evidence indicated that his father was abusive and that the defendant began consuming marijuana at the age of ten. When he was seventeen he was apprehended by authorities for selling narcotics and his parent forced him to leave of home. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a construction worker but had undergone 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 spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had regular sexual encounters beyond their marriage. His defence said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. Dogan had informed a evaluator that annually he sought paid sex on his special day. His legal representatives informed the court he had arthritis triggered by the pressure of the initial proceedings.