🔗 Share this article

A defendant was convicted on appeal of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and has had his jail term increased to 10 years.

Higher Court Case

Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a retrial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

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

The court heard that the accused, a family man, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s then husband, the husband, in an digital platform titled “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was seeking men to enter his residence to assault his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a unconscious state.

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

Context

Dominique Pelicot, a notorious sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to two decades in prison last year for incapacitating his wife at the time and soliciting dozens of men to sexually assault 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 only man to contest his sentence. He was originally given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any accountability”.

Courtroom Details

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 informing his wife he was stepping out, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was brought from segregation in prison to temporarily testify at the retrial, stated to the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “sedated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep unbeknownst to her.”

The trial became a central issue for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to assert he was innocent and had not perpetrated assault, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the residence, his conduct had been justifiable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with visual proof of the victim's limp body, comatose and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning Dogan committed rape repeatedly over a period of what police said was 3.5 hours. The presiding judge said she had been at risk of death by choking. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed.

Defendant's Statements

The defendant told the court the recordings were simply “sexual encounters” and disputed it was violation. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He stated the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan told the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”

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

Survivor's Statement

The survivor, who was applauded upon leaving court each day by crowds present to back her, told Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you admit you raped me? It’s a crime to rape an unconscious woman. When did I ever give you agreement? Not once.”

The victim, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she gave up her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

State's Argument

The prosecutor, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take accountability showed that: “The shame remains. Society is possibly in the midst of that, perhaps driven by the public consciousness resulting from the revelation of your situation.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of non-guilt 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 said to the defendant: “As long as you reject it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an complete sordid cultural framework that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his parent was abusive and that the defendant began consuming marijuana aged 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was apprehended by authorities for drug trafficking and his parent forced him to leave the residence. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had undergone periods of living on the streets.

He was married and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a educational cafeteria. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had regular intimate relations beyond their union. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his stressful life. The defendant had informed a court psychologist that annually he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His legal representatives told the court he had a medical condition triggered by the anxiety of the original case.