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A defendant was convicted on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her husband – and was given his jail term extended to a decade.

Higher Court Case

Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a retrial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A panel of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her residence in Provence in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that Dogan, a family man, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform named “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was seeking men to visit his house to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

“We hope the jury will say loud and clear that in this nation, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that consent is personal, not delegated,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, her legal representative. “Consent is obtained personally and not via a representative from a husband.”

Background

Dominique Pelicot, a notorious sex offenders in recent French history, was handed a sentence to twenty years in prison last year for drugging his spouse and bringing in numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the town of Mazan over a span of many years of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found guilty in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to challenge his conviction. He was first handed a term to 9 years in prison, a sentence raised on Thursday to a decade.

The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any responsibility”.

Evidence Presented

Dogan had first sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his village in Provence to assault the victim, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was transported from isolation in prison to briefly give evidence at the retrial, informed the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I seek someone to assault my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her consent.”

The courtroom became a key topic for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to assert he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the bedroom, his actions had been permissible.

The jury in the higher court was displayed recorded footage of the victim's unresponsive form, comatose and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning Dogan committed rape repeatedly over a duration of what investigators stated was several hours. The presiding judge said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by choking. The prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unaware and had not consented.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan told the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He stated the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the home, and therefore it was OK. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan stated to the court. “I carried on because he reassured me.”

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

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers gathered to support her, told Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you violated me? It is unlawful to rape an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you permission? At no time.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 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.”

State's Argument

Sie, turning to the victim in court, said Dogan’s failure to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The public is perhaps in the midst of that, possibly motivated by the societal understanding brought by the revelation of your ordeal.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

The prosecutor addressed the defendant: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire disturbing cultural framework that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was originated from Turkey and at the age of five moved to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The testimony revealed that his father was violent and that Dogan began smoking cannabis at the age of ten. When he was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for selling narcotics and his parent kicked him out the family house. He spent time in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a laborer but had faced periods of living on the streets.

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 court heard his spouse did not know he had repeated sexual encounters outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. The defendant had stated to a court psychologist that annually he sought commercial sex on his birthday. His lawyers informed the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the pressure of the first trial.