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A man was declared guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was sedated by her spouse – and was given his jail term increased to ten years.

Retrial Proceedings

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

A jury of nine jurors, joined by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her residence in the south of France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a married father, made contact with the victim's then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom called “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was seeking men to visit his house to rape his wife after he had sedated her into a deep sleep.

We expect the court will affirm that in this society, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that consent is individual, not given by another,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, her legal representative. “Permission is secured directly and not through someone else from a husband.”

Case History

The husband, among the most severe sexual predators in recent French history, was handed a sentence to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his wife at the time and inviting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the town of Mazan over a period of many years of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to contest his conviction. He was originally sentenced to 9 years in prison, a penalty enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any responsibility”.

Evidence Presented

Dogan had initially sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his village in Provence to assault the victim, after informing his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily testify at the appeal trial, told the court that the accused had known his wife had been “sedated” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The proceedings became a focus point for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to say he was innocent and had not engaged in violation, stating that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the residence, his actions had been permissible.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, unconscious and snoring in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault on several occasions over a period of what investigators stated was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by choking. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unaware and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant told the court the recordings were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was assault. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He told the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan told the court. “I proceeded because he persuaded me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to hurt that lady.”

Survivor's Statement

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by onlookers gathered to back her, told Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you assaulted me? It is unlawful to rape an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you permission? Not once.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an symbol of resistance after she relinquished her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, turning to the victim in court, said Dogan’s failure to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The public is possibly in the course of that, perhaps motivated by the societal understanding brought by the exposure of your case.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how rape culture was still common in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor said to the defendant: “While you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole unpleasant societal structure that you are upholding.”

Personal History

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The court heard that his parent was violent and that the defendant began using drugs at the age of ten. When he was seventeen he was caught by authorities for selling narcotics and his parent evicted him of home. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a laborer but had experienced periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had frequent sexual encounters outside their union. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his stressful life. Dogan had told a mental health expert that once a year he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His legal representatives informed the court he had a medical condition triggered by the pressure of the first trial.