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A man has been found guilty on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her husband – and has had his prison sentence raised to a decade.

Higher Court Case

Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a retrial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

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

The evidence showed that Dogan, a married father, made contact with the victim's spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum titled “without her knowledge”, where the husband was seeking men to enter his residence to rape his wife after he had drugged her into a unconscious state.

“We hope the jury will declare that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that permission is individual, not given by another,” stated the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Consent is obtained personally and not via a representative from a husband.”

Context

The ex-husband, a notorious sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to two decades in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and soliciting 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.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a notable trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to contest his conviction. He was first sentenced to nine years in prison, a punishment enhanced on Thursday to 10 years.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any responsibility”.

Testimony and Proof

Dogan had first sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his town in the region to rape the victim, after telling his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was brought from segregation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the retrial, told the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “sedated” and he said to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to abuse my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her consent.”

The trial became a key topic for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to say he was blameless and had not perpetrated assault, stating that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the room, his behavior had been permissible.

The jury in the higher court was presented with visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, unconscious and snoring in a deep sleep, while a grinning Dogan committed rape multiple times over a duration of what police said was 3.5 hours. The judge said she had been at risk of death by suffocation. The state's case said there was absolute certainty that she had been unaware and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan told the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was assault. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” the accused stated to the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to injure that woman.”

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon leaving court each day by crowds present to back her, said to Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you assaulted me? It is illegal to assault an unaware woman. How could I have give you agreement? Not once.”

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, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s failure to take blame showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The community is maybe in the midst of that, maybe driven by the societal understanding brought by the publication of your case.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “male domination”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor said to the defendant: “As long as you reject it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an complete disturbing social system that you are upholding.”

Personal History

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 came to the nation of France, where his father worked as a concierge. The testimony revealed that his parent was aggressive and that Dogan began consuming marijuana aged ten. When he was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for dealing drugs and his father forced him to leave of home. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a child with special needs, who he was the primary guardian for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had frequent extramarital activities outside their union. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. Dogan had told a court psychologist that annually he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His attorneys stated to the court he had a medical condition caused by the pressure of the initial proceedings.