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An individual has been found guilty on higher court review of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was sedated by her husband – and was given his prison sentence raised to ten years.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his first conviction last year, experienced a appeal hearing this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of four women and five men, accompanied by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her bedroom in southern France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that Dogan, a married father, reached out to the victim's spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform named “without her consent”, where Pelicot was looking for men to come to his home to rape his wife after he had sedated her into a comatose state.

We expect the jury will say loud and clear that in this nation, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is individual, not delegated,” said the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is received directly and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Context

The ex-husband, one of the worst sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to 20 years in prison last year for drugging his then wife and bringing in multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a span of many years of their marriage.

Numerous other individuals were found culpable in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to contest his sentence. He was first sentenced to nine years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to 10 years.

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

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had first sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his residence in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily testify at the appeal trial, told the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to violate my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The proceedings became a central issue for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to claim he was blameless and had not perpetrated assault, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the residence, his conduct had been justifiable.

The jury in the higher court was presented with visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, unconscious and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault on several occasions over a duration of what authorities reported was several hours. The judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state's case said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan informed the court the footage were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was violation. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He declared 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,” Dogan told the court. “I proceeded because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to hurt that individual.”

Survivor's Statement

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon leaving court each day by crowds assembled to support her, addressed Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you admit you assaulted me? It’s a crime to assault an incapacitated woman. How could I have give you permission? At no time.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an global icon 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: “Shame has not yet changed sides. Society is maybe in the process of that, perhaps motivated by the societal understanding brought by the revelation of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how rape culture 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 Dogan: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an complete disturbing societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five moved to France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The court heard that his parent was aggressive and that Dogan began consuming marijuana at the age of ten. When he was 17 he was apprehended by authorities for selling narcotics and his parent kicked him out of home. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a child with special needs, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had repeated sexual encounters beyond their union. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his stressful life. The defendant had informed a court psychologist that once a year he engaged in commercial sex on his special day. His attorneys stated to the court he had a medical condition resulting from the pressure of the first trial.