🔗 Share this article

A defendant was declared guilty on appeal of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and was given his jail term raised to a decade.

Higher Court Case

Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had contested his first conviction last year, underwent a appeal hearing this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

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

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

We trust the panel will declare that in this country, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that permission is personal, not delegated,” declared the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Consent is obtained directly and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Background

The husband, a notorious sexual predators in recent French history, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his spouse and inviting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a duration of almost a decade of their union.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to appeal against his conviction. He was initially handed a term to 9 years in prison, a sentence enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

The chief prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any accountability”.

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then driven an hour from his residence in the region to assault the victim, after informing his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was transported from segregation in prison to briefly testify at the retrial, told the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “drugged” and he told to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to abuse my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.”

The trial became a focus point for a broader debate on sexual violence norms in society as the defendant continued to assert he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had welcomed him into the residence, his behavior had been permissible.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, comatose and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a smiling Dogan performed assault repeatedly over a duration of what police said was three and a half hours. The presiding judge said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by suffocation. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

The defendant informed the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He declared the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the house, and therefore it was OK. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused told the court. “I continued because he convinced me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to harm that individual.”

Victim's Response

The survivor, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by supporters gathered to back her, told Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When will you admit you assaulted me? It’s a crime to rape an unaware woman. When did I ever give you permission? Never.”

The victim, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she relinquished her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

The prosecutor, addressing the victim in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take responsibility showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The public is possibly in the process of that, maybe driven by the societal understanding resulting from the exposure of your case.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how societal tolerance was still widespread in society as part of “outdated” forms of “male domination”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor said to Dogan: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole unpleasant societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was originated from Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to the nation of France, where his father worked as a concierge. The evidence indicated that his father was violent and that Dogan began using drugs aged ten. When he was seventeen he was stopped by police for dealing drugs and his parent evicted him the family house. He spent time in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a builder but had undergone periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a child with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The court heard his spouse did not know he had regular sexual encounters outside their union. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his stressful life. Dogan had told a evaluator that once a year he sought commercial sex on his birthday. His lawyers stated to the court he had arthritis caused by the pressure of the initial proceedings.