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A defendant was declared guilty on retrial of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her husband – and received his prison sentence increased to 10 years.

Higher Court Case

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

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

The evidence showed that the accused, a married father, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum titled “without her consent”, where the husband was recruiting men to visit his house to assault his wife after he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

We expect the panel will declare that in this society, human rights are also women’s rights – that consent is individual, not delegated,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is obtained directly and not through someone else from a husband.”

Case History

The ex-husband, one of the worst sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for drugging his wife at the time and inviting dozens of men to rape her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found convicted in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to contest his verdict. He was first given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a penalty enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any accountability”.

Evidence Presented

Dogan had initially sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his town in the region to assault the victim, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily give evidence at the retrial, stated to the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “sedated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to abuse my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”

The courtroom became a key topic for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to assert he was not guilty and had not committed rape, stating that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the bedroom, his behavior had been acceptable.

The jury in the higher court was displayed recorded footage of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, comatose 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 judge said she had been at danger of death by asphyxiation. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan informed the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and denied it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He declared the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim'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 carried on because he reassured me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to injure that woman.”

Survivor's Statement

The victim, who was supported upon leaving court each day by supporters present to support her, told Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you raped me? It is illegal to assault an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you agreement? Never.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she waived her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

State's Argument

Sie, speaking to the victim in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. The community is maybe in the course of that, possibly driven by the collective awareness resulting from the publication of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still common in society as part of “outdated” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

Sie told the defendant: “For as much as you reject it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an complete disturbing social system that you are endorsing.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five relocated to France, where his father worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his parent was abusive and that the defendant began smoking cannabis at the age of 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for dealing drugs and his father kicked him out the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had experienced periods of living on the streets.

He was wed and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had regular extramarital activities beyond their marriage. His defence said this was his way of coping with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had stated to a mental health expert that each year he engaged in paid sex on his birthday. His attorneys informed the court he had arthritis triggered by the anxiety of the first trial.