🔗 Share this article

An individual was declared guilty on higher court review of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was sedated by her then-husband – and received his prison sentence increased to 10 years.

Appeal Trial

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

A jury of four women and five men, accompanied by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her residence in southern France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a family man, connected with the victim's spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom titled “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was looking for men to visit his house to assault his wife after he had sedated her into a deep sleep.

We trust the panel will declare that in this society, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that agreement is personal, not delegated,” stated the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Consent is obtained personally and not through someone else from a husband.”

Case History

The husband, one of the worst sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his then wife and bringing in dozens of men to rape her in her home in the community of Mazan over a period of almost a decade of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to appeal against his verdict. He was first given a sentence to nine years in prison, a penalty enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any responsibility”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had initially sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his residence in Provence to assault the victim, after notifying his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to briefly testify at the retrial, informed the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”

The courtroom became a key topic for a broader debate on sexual violence norms in society as the defendant continued to say he was not guilty and had not engaged in violation, stating that because the victim's husband had invited him into the bedroom, his behavior had been acceptable.

The jury in the higher court was shown recorded footage of the victim's unresponsive form, comatose and snoring in a comatose state, while a smiling the perpetrator performed assault repeatedly over a period of what investigators stated was several hours. The court official said she had been at peril of death by choking. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan informed the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and disputed it was rape. 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 allowed him to the house, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan stated to the court. “I continued because he convinced me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to harm that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers present to stand with her, addressed the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you violated me? It’s a crime to rape an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you permission? Not once.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an global icon after she relinquished her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, speaking to the victim in court, said Dogan’s failure to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. The public is possibly in the process of that, perhaps driven by the collective awareness resulting from the revelation of your situation.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how societal tolerance was still common in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

Sie addressed Dogan: “For as much as you reject it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire sordid social system that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of five moved to France, where his father worked as a concierge. The testimony revealed that his father was aggressive and that the defendant began smoking cannabis aged 10. When Dogan was 17 he was apprehended by authorities for dealing drugs and his parent evicted him the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a construction worker but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a son with special needs, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had regular intimate relations outside their marriage. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. The defendant had told a evaluator that each year he engaged in transactional encounters on his special day. His attorneys told the court he had joint inflammation triggered by the stress of the first trial.