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An individual was declared guilty on appeal of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her husband – and was given his prison sentence extended to a decade.

Appeal Trial

Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a new trial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A panel of four women and five men, accompanied by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her residence in the south of France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a family man, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform named “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was seeking men to come to his home to assault his wife after he had drugged her into a comatose state.

We trust the court will say loud and clear that in this country, human rights are also women’s rights – that permission is individual, not given by another,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Consent is secured personally and not through someone else from a husband.”

Background

Dominique Pelicot, among the most severe sexual predators in modern French history, was sentenced to two decades in prison last year for incapacitating his wife at the time and inviting 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 union.

Fifty other men were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to challenge his conviction. He was originally given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “completely denies to take any responsibility”.

Testimony and Proof

Dogan had first sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his residence in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was leaving, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to briefly provide testimony at the hearing, stated to the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I seek someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.”

The courtroom became a key topic for a larger conversation on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to assert he was innocent and had not engaged in violation, arguing that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the bedroom, his behavior had been acceptable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with recorded footage of Gisèle Pelicot’s unresponsive form, unconscious and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a smiling the perpetrator committed rape on several occasions over a timeframe of what authorities reported was several hours. The court official said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state's case said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not consented.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant stated to the court the videos were simply “sexual encounters” and disputed it was assault. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the home, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan informed the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to injure that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was cheered upon departing the trial each day by crowds gathered to stand with her, told the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is illegal to rape an incapacitated woman. How could I have give you consent? Never.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an global icon after she waived her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, speaking to the victim in court, said Dogan’s failure to take accountability showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The community is perhaps in the course of that, possibly motivated by the collective awareness resulting from the revelation of your ordeal.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how rape culture was still common in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

Sie addressed Dogan: “For as much as you reject it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an complete unpleasant cultural framework that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was originated from the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The testimony revealed that his parent was aggressive and that the defendant began using drugs aged 10. When Dogan was 17 he was stopped by authorities for dealing drugs and his parent kicked him out the family house. He served time in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a son with a genetic condition, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had repeated intimate relations beyond their union. His defence said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. The defendant had informed a evaluator that annually he engaged in commercial sex on his birthday. His lawyers informed the court he had joint inflammation triggered by the anxiety of the initial proceedings.