🔗 Share this article

An individual has been found guilty on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her husband – and has had his jail term extended to 10 years.

Retrial Proceedings

The defendant, 44, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a new trial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A jury of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her bedroom in Provence in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a married father, reached out to the victim's husband at the time, the husband, in an digital platform named “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was looking for men to enter his residence to assault his wife after he had sedated her into a deep sleep.

We expect the court will say loud and clear that in this nation, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that consent is individual, not given by another,” declared the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Permission is obtained directly and not through someone else from a husband.”

Case History

The ex-husband, one of the worst sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year for drugging his wife at the time and inviting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the community of Mazan over a span of many years of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found convicted in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to challenge his sentence. He was originally handed a term to nine years in prison, a punishment enhanced on Thursday to 10 years.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any responsibility”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his town in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was leaving, the evidence indicated.

The ex-husband, who was transported from segregation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the hearing, stated to the court that Dogan had understood 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 without her knowledge.”

The proceedings became a focus point for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to say he was innocent and had not perpetrated assault, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the residence, his conduct had been justifiable.

The panel in the higher court was presented with visual proof of the victim's limp body, comatose and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator committed rape repeatedly over a period of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The presiding judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by suffocation. The prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan informed the court the videos were simply “sex scenes” and rejected it was violation. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He declared the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” the accused stated to the court. “I proceeded because he convinced me.”

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

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds assembled to stand with her, told the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It is illegal to rape an incapacitated woman. How could I have give you agreement? Never.”

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

State's Argument

The prosecutor, addressing the victim in court, said the defendant's refusal to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The public is maybe in the process of that, perhaps propelled by the societal understanding resulting from the revelation of your case.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “archaic” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor told the defendant: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole sordid societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Personal History

The accused was originated from Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The court heard that his father was violent and that the defendant began using drugs at the age of 10. When Dogan was 17 he was stopped by police for dealing drugs and his father evicted him the residence. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his early 20s and had worked as a construction worker 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 spouse worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had repeated extramarital activities beyond their union. His defence said this was his way of coping with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had told a mental health expert that once a year he engaged in paid sex on his birthday. His legal representatives told the court he had arthritis caused by the anxiety of the original case.