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A man was declared guilty on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her husband – and has had his jail term raised to 10 years.

Appeal Trial

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

A panel of four women and five men, joined by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her home in Provence in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The testimony revealed that the accused, a married father, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom titled “without her consent”, where the husband was seeking men to come to his home to assault his wife once he had drugged her into a unconscious state.

We trust the panel will affirm that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that permission is personal, not transferred,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Permission is received directly and not through someone else from a husband.”

Context

The ex-husband, a notorious sex offenders in recent French history, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for incapacitating his then wife and soliciting dozens of men to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a duration of many years of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found culpable in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to appeal against his sentence. He was first given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a penalty enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

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

Courtroom Details

Dogan had initially sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his residence in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was leaving, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was brought from segregation in prison to briefly testify at the retrial, informed the court that the accused had known his wife had been “sedated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The proceedings became a key topic for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to assert he was innocent and had not engaged in violation, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the room, his conduct had been acceptable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown visual proof of the victim's limp body, unconscious and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation multiple times over a period of what authorities reported was several hours. The judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state's case said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan stated to the court the footage were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was violation. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I attempted to cease,” the accused told the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

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

Pelicot's Words

The victim, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters gathered to support her, told the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is unlawful to rape an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you permission? Not once.”

The victim, 72, became an international feminist hero after she relinquished her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, addressing the victim in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. Society is possibly in the midst of that, perhaps driven by the public consciousness spurred by the exposure of your ordeal.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how rape culture was still prevalent in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a culture of consent.”

The prosecutor said to Dogan: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an complete sordid societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five came to France, where his father worked as a concierge. The court heard that his parent was aggressive and that Dogan began smoking cannabis aged ten. When Dogan was 17 he was caught by police for selling narcotics and his parent evicted him the residence. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his early 20s and had worked as a laborer but had faced periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had frequent intimate relations outside their union. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. The defendant had informed a mental health expert that each year he looked for transactional encounters on his birthday. His attorneys stated to the court he had joint inflammation caused by the stress of the first trial.