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A defendant has been found guilty on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot following she was sedated by her then-husband – and received his incarceration period increased to 10 years.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a new trial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her residence in Provence in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The testimony revealed that the accused, a family man, made contact with the victim's spouse, the husband, in an online chatroom titled “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was seeking men to visit his house to assault his wife after he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

We trust the court will say loud and clear that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that permission is personal, not delegated,” said the victim's attorney, her legal representative. “Agreement is secured personally and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Case History

The ex-husband, among the most severe sex offenders in modern French history, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for drugging his spouse and bringing in multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the town 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 the appellant was the single defendant to appeal against his sentence. He was first handed a term to 9 years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to a decade.

The chief prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “completely denies to take any blame”.

Testimony and Proof

Dogan had first sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his town in the region to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was going out, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to briefly testify at the appeal trial, informed the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to assault my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her consent.”

The courtroom became a key topic for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to claim he was blameless and had not committed rape, stating that because the victim's husband had invited him into the bedroom, his actions had been justifiable.

The panel in the higher court was shown visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, comatose and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a smiling Dogan engaged in violation multiple times over a duration of what police said was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The state's case said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant informed the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the home, and therefore it was OK. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I attempted to cease,” the accused stated to the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to injure that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

The victim, who was supported upon leaving court each day by crowds gathered to support her, told Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you violated me? It is illegal to assault an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you agreement? Not once.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an global icon after she gave up her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s failure to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is maybe in the process of that, maybe propelled by the public consciousness resulting from the publication of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still common in society as part of “outdated” forms of “male domination”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

Sie said to Dogan: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a person, it’s an entire sordid societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was originated from the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The evidence indicated that his parent was abusive and that the defendant began using drugs aged 10. When Dogan was 17 he was stopped by police for selling narcotics and his father forced him to leave the residence. He spent time in prison for drug dealing in his young adulthood and had worked as a construction worker but had faced periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a son with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a educational cafeteria. The court heard his wife did not know he had repeated extramarital activities beyond their union. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. The defendant had informed a evaluator that annually he engaged in commercial sex on his birthday. His attorneys told the court he had a medical condition resulting from the anxiety of the original case.