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A defendant has been found guilty on higher court review of raping Gisele Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her then-husband – and received his incarceration period extended to a decade.

Higher Court Case

Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had contested his first conviction last year, faced a new trial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of nine jurors, joined by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her residence in southern France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that Dogan, a family man, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom titled “without her consent”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to come to his home to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

“We hope the panel will declare that in this society, human rights are also women’s rights – that permission is individual, not given by another,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is obtained directly and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Case History

The ex-husband, a notorious sex offenders in modern French history, was given a prison term to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his spouse and bringing in dozens of men to rape her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a span of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Numerous other individuals were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to challenge his sentence. He was initially handed a term to nine years in prison, a sentence raised on Thursday to ten years.

The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any blame”.

Evidence Presented

Dogan had first sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his village in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the hearing, stated to the court that Dogan 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 without her knowledge.”

The trial became a key topic for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to claim he was not guilty and had not committed rape, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the residence, his behavior had been acceptable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with recorded footage of the victim's unresponsive form, unconscious and snoring in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault multiple times over a timeframe of what police said was three and a half hours. The judge said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

The defendant stated to the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan told the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to hurt that woman.”

Victim's Response

The survivor, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by crowds assembled to stand with her, said to the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It’s a crime to assault an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you agreement? Never.”

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

State's Argument

Sie, speaking to the victim in court, said the defendant's refusal to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is possibly in the midst of that, possibly driven by the societal understanding spurred by the revelation of your case.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how rape culture was still common in society as part of “outdated” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

Sie told Dogan: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire unpleasant social system that you are upholding.”

Personal History

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 came to France, where his father worked as a concierge. The evidence indicated that his father was violent and that Dogan began smoking cannabis at the age of ten. When he was 17 he was stopped by police for selling narcotics and his parent forced him to leave the family house. He spent time in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of living on the streets.

He was married and had a child with special needs, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had repeated intimate relations beyond their marriage. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. The defendant had told a mental health expert that each year he looked for transactional encounters on his birthday. His lawyers stated to the court he had arthritis triggered by the anxiety of the first trial.