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A defendant was declared guilty on higher court review of raping Gisele Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her then-husband – and received his jail term extended to 10 years.

Higher Court Case

Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a new trial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A panel of four women and five men, joined by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her home in the south of France 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 online chatroom titled “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to come to his home to assault his wife after he had sedated her into a deep sleep.

“We hope the court will declare that in this society, human rights are also rights of women – that agreement is personal, not given by another,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Permission is secured personally and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Background

Dominique Pelicot, a notorious sexual predators in modern French history, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for incapacitating his wife at the time and bringing in multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a period of nearly ten years of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to contest his verdict. He was initially handed a term to nine years in prison, a sentence enhanced on Thursday to ten years.

The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any blame”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his town in the region to rape the victim, after telling his wife he was leaving, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the hearing, stated to the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The trial became a central issue for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to assert he was not guilty and had not engaged in violation, arguing that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the room, his conduct had been justifiable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with recorded footage of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, comatose and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator committed rape multiple times over a duration of what investigators stated was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at danger of death by asphyxiation. The prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

The defendant told the court the footage were simply “sexual encounters” and denied it was violation. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the residence, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” 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 woman.”

Victim's Response

The victim, who was cheered upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds gathered to support her, addressed the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you raped me? It is illegal to rape an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you agreement? At no time.”

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 Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s failure to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is possibly in the course of that, perhaps propelled by the collective awareness resulting from the exposure of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of non-guilt showed how societal tolerance was still common in society as part of “outdated” forms of “male domination”. He said: “It is imperative to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor told the defendant: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an complete sordid cultural framework that you are supporting.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to the nation of France, where his father worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his father was violent and that the defendant began smoking cannabis at the age of ten. When Dogan was 17 he was apprehended by authorities for dealing drugs and his parent evicted him of home. He was incarcerated in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had regular extramarital activities outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his stressful life. Dogan had informed a evaluator that once a year he looked for commercial sex on his birthday. His legal representatives told the court he had joint inflammation caused by the stress of the original case.