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A defendant was convicted on appeal of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her then-husband – and was given his prison sentence raised to 10 years.

Appeal Trial

Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a new trial 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 raping Pelicot in her residence in southern France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a family man, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom titled “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was seeking men to come to his home to assault his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

We expect the court will declare that in this nation, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that consent is personal, not given by another,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is received directly and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Case History

Dominique Pelicot, one of the worst sex offenders in recent French history, was handed a sentence to 20 years in prison last year for drugging his wife at the time and bringing in dozens of men to rape her in her home in the community of Mazan over a span of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found convicted in a notable trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to challenge his verdict. He was initially given a sentence to nine years in prison, a sentence increased on Thursday to a decade.

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

Evidence Presented

The defendant had initially sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his residence in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was stepping out, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was transported from segregation in prison to briefly give evidence at the retrial, stated to the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “incapacitated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to assault my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her consent.”

The trial became a central issue for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to assert he was innocent and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had welcomed him into the bedroom, his actions had been permissible.

The jury in the higher court was displayed recorded footage of the victim's unconscious figure, comatose and breathing heavily 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 judge said she had been at risk of death by asphyxiation. The state's case said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant told the court the videos were simply “sexual encounters” and rejected it was violation. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He stated the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I tried to halt,” Dogan stated to the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to harm that lady.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was supported upon leaving court each day by onlookers assembled to back her, told Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When are you going to recognise you assaulted me? It’s a crime to assault an incapacitated woman. How could I have give you consent? At no time.”

The victim, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she gave up her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, speaking to the victim in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take blame showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The public is perhaps in the process of that, perhaps motivated by the societal understanding brought by the revelation of your situation.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “archaic” forms of “male domination”. He said: “It is imperative to change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

Sie addressed the defendant: “For as much as you reject it, it’s not just a person, it’s an entire disturbing cultural framework that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was originated from Turkey and at the age of 5 came to France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his parent was aggressive and that Dogan began using drugs aged ten. When he was 17 he was stopped by police for dealing drugs and his parent forced him to leave of home. He was incarcerated in prison for drug dealing in his young adulthood and had worked as a construction worker but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a son with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had frequent intimate relations outside their union. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had informed a court psychologist that once a year he sought transactional encounters on his special day. His attorneys informed the court he had arthritis resulting from the stress of the original case.