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An individual was convicted on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was sedated by her then-husband – and was given his jail term raised to 10 years.

Higher Court Case

The defendant, 44, an unemployed builder, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a new trial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A jury of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her home in Provence in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a married father, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, the husband, in an digital platform titled “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was recruiting men to enter his residence to assault his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a deep sleep.

We trust the court will say loud and clear that in this country, human rights are also rights of women – that permission is individual, not transferred,” stated the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Consent is received directly and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Context

The ex-husband, a notorious sexual predators in recent French history, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for sedating his then wife and soliciting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a period of nearly ten years of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to appeal against his conviction. He was originally given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a penalty enhanced on Thursday to 10 years.

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

Evidence Presented

Dogan had initially sent the husband graphic images and then driven an hour from his town in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was leaving, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the hearing, told the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “sedated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep unbeknownst to her.”

The trial became a central issue for a wider discussion on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to assert he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, stating that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the residence, his conduct had been acceptable.

The jury in the higher court was shown video evidence of the victim's limp body, unconscious and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning Dogan engaged in violation multiple times over a duration of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The judge said she had been at danger of death by suffocation. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan stated to the court the footage were simply “sexual encounters” and rejected it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He stated the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the house, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan stated to the court. “I carried on because he reassured me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to harm that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was supported upon leaving court each day by onlookers present to stand with her, said to the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you violated me? It’s a crime to rape an unconscious woman. How could I have give you consent? Never.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an global icon after she relinquished her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

State's Argument

Sie, turning to the victim in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take accountability showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The public is possibly in the process of that, perhaps driven by the public consciousness resulting from the revelation of your case.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “archaic” forms of “male domination”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

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

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to the nation of France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The court heard that his father was aggressive and that the defendant began smoking cannabis at the age of 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for selling narcotics and his father evicted him the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a laborer but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had frequent sexual encounters beyond their union. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. The defendant had told a evaluator that once a year he engaged in paid sex on his birthday. His attorneys informed the court he had arthritis caused by the stress of the first trial.