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An individual was declared guilty on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her husband – and has had his incarceration period increased to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

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

A jury of nine jurors, accompanied by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her home in southern France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a family man, reached out to the victim's spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum named “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to enter his residence to assault his wife after he had sedated her into a comatose state.

We trust the jury will declare that in this nation, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that permission is personal, not delegated,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, her legal representative. “Permission is obtained personally and not through someone else from a husband.”

Context

Dominique Pelicot, among the most severe sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and bringing in numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the town of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found culpable in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to challenge his conviction. He was first sentenced to nine years in prison, a punishment raised on Thursday to ten years.

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

Courtroom Details

Dogan had first sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his residence in the region to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was going out, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to briefly provide testimony at the retrial, informed the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to abuse my wife after I’ve put her to sleep unbeknownst to her.”

The proceedings became a central issue for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to assert he was not guilty and had not committed rape, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the bedroom, his behavior had been justifiable.

The jury in the higher court was shown video evidence of the victim's limp body, comatose and breathing heavily in a deep sleep, while a grinning Dogan performed assault on several occasions over a duration of what investigators stated was 3.5 hours. The presiding judge said she had been at risk of death by asphyxiation. The state's case said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan informed the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and rejected 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 Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him to the residence, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan informed the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to hurt that lady.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by onlookers present to back her, addressed the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It is illegal to assault an unaware woman. At what point did I give you permission? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she relinquished her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

State's Argument

The prosecutor, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take accountability showed that: “The shame remains. The community is perhaps in the midst of that, perhaps driven by the public consciousness spurred by the exposure of your situation.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor addressed Dogan: “While you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire sordid societal structure that you are upholding.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 came to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his parent was violent and that Dogan began using drugs aged ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for drug trafficking and his parent kicked him out the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood 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 main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had repeated extramarital activities outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. The defendant had informed a court psychologist that each year he sought paid sex on his special day. His legal representatives told the court he had joint inflammation caused by the stress of the original case.