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A man has been found guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her then-husband – and received his jail term extended to ten years.

Higher Court Case

Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a appeal hearing this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of four women and five men, accompanied by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her home in Provence in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a family man, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform titled “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was looking for men to enter his residence to rape his wife after he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

“We hope the panel will affirm that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that agreement is individual, not delegated,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is secured directly and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Context

Dominique Pelicot, a notorious sexual predators in modern French history, was handed a sentence to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his then wife and bringing in multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a period of nearly ten years of their marriage.

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

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

Evidence Presented

The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his town in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was leaving, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to briefly provide testimony at the retrial, told the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to assault my wife after I’ve sedated her unbeknownst to her.”

The trial became a key topic for a broader debate on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to claim he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the residence, his behavior had been permissible.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed video evidence of the victim's unresponsive form, sedated and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault on several occasions over a period of what investigators stated was three and a half hours. The presiding judge said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant informed the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was violation. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the home, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I tried to halt,” the accused stated to the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to injure that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon departing the trial each day by crowds assembled to support her, told Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you raped me? It is unlawful to assault an unconscious woman. When did I ever give you agreement? Never.”

The victim, 72, became an global icon after she gave up her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, speaking to the victim in court, said the defendant's refusal to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is maybe in the midst of that, perhaps driven by the collective awareness spurred by the revelation of your situation.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how rape culture was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “It is imperative to change rape culture to a culture of consent.”

The prosecutor told Dogan: “For as much as you reject it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an complete unpleasant societal structure that you are upholding.”

Personal History

Dogan was originated from Turkey and at the age of five relocated to France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The evidence indicated that his parent was violent and that Dogan began consuming marijuana at the age of ten. When he was 17 he was apprehended by authorities for dealing drugs and his parent kicked him out the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had undergone periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had regular extramarital activities outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had told a mental health expert that once a year he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His legal representatives stated to the court he had joint inflammation triggered by the pressure of the original case.