🔗 Share this article

A man was convicted on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband – and was given his incarceration period increased to a decade.

Appeal Trial

Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his first conviction last year, faced a appeal hearing this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A jury of nine jurors, joined by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her residence in Provence in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that Dogan, a married father, made contact with the victim's spouse, the husband, in an online chatroom called “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was seeking men to visit his house to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

“We hope the court will say loud and clear that in this nation, human rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is personal, not given by another,” declared the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is obtained directly and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Context

The ex-husband, among the most severe sex offenders in recent French history, was handed a sentence to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his then wife and bringing in multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the community of Mazan over a duration of almost a decade of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to appeal against his sentence. He was initially handed a term to 9 years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to a decade.

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

Evidence Presented

Dogan had initially sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his town in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily testify at the retrial, stated to the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to assault my wife after I’ve sedated her unbeknownst to her.”

The courtroom became a focus point for a broader debate on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to say he was not guilty and had not committed rape, stating that because the victim's husband had invited him into the room, his conduct had been justifiable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s unresponsive form, unconscious and breathing heavily in a deep sleep, while a smiling the perpetrator performed assault multiple times over a timeframe of what authorities reported was several hours. The court official said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by choking. The state's case said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan stated to the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and disputed it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the residence, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” Dogan told the court. “I proceeded because he persuaded me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to injure that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers assembled to back her, said to Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It’s a crime to assault an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you agreement? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she gave up her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, addressing the victim in court, said the defendant's failure to take accountability showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. Society is maybe in the midst of that, possibly propelled by the societal understanding resulting from the revelation of your situation.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

Sie said to Dogan: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a person, it’s an entire disturbing cultural framework that you are supporting.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to the nation of France, where his father worked as a concierge. The testimony revealed that his parent was violent and that the defendant began using drugs aged ten. When Dogan was 17 he was caught by police for selling narcotics and his father kicked him out the residence. He served time in prison for narcotics offenses in his early 20s and had worked as a construction worker but had undergone periods of living on the streets.

He was married and had a son with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had regular sexual encounters beyond their union. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. The defendant had informed a court psychologist that each year he looked for commercial sex on his birthday. His legal representatives informed the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the anxiety of the original case.