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An individual was convicted on higher court review of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her then-husband – and has had his prison sentence extended to ten years.

Higher Court Case

Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had appealed his first conviction last year, experienced a new trial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A jury of nine jurors, accompanied by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her home in southern France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a married father, connected with the victim's then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum named “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was recruiting men to come to his home to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a deep sleep.

We expect the court will say loud and clear that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that consent is individual, not transferred,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is received personally and not through someone else from a husband.”

Background

Dominique Pelicot, 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 inviting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found guilty in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to challenge his conviction. He was first handed a term to 9 years in prison, a sentence enhanced on Thursday to 10 years.

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

Evidence Presented

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his village in the region to assault the victim, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was brought from isolation in prison to briefly give evidence at the appeal trial, stated to the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to abuse my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”

The courtroom became a key topic for a broader debate on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to assert he was innocent and had not committed rape, stating that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the bedroom, his conduct had been permissible.

The panel in the higher court was presented with video evidence of the victim's unresponsive form, unconscious and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a smiling the perpetrator performed assault multiple times over a timeframe of what investigators stated was several hours. The court official said she had been at danger of death by asphyxiation. The prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan informed the court the videos were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was violation. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He stated the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him to the home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I attempted to cease,” the accused 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.”

Pelicot's Words

The victim, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by supporters gathered to support her, said to the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you violated me? It’s a crime to rape an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you consent? At no time.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she waived her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

State's Argument

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

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how rape culture was still prevalent in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “It is imperative to change rape culture to a culture of consent.”

Sie told Dogan: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire disturbing social system that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

The accused 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 building manager. The evidence indicated that his father was abusive and that the defendant began consuming marijuana aged ten. When Dogan was 17 he was apprehended by authorities for drug trafficking and his father forced him to leave the residence. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his early 20s and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a son with a genetic condition, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The court heard his wife did not know he had frequent extramarital activities outside their marriage. His defence said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. The defendant had informed a mental health expert that each year he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His lawyers stated to the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the stress of the first trial.