🔗 Share this article

A man was convicted on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was sedated by her then-husband – and was given his incarceration period increased to 10 years.

Retrial Proceedings

The defendant, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a retrial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

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

The court heard that Dogan, a married father, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, the husband, in an internet forum called “without her consent”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to come to his home to rape his wife after he had drugged her into a comatose state.

We expect the jury will say loud and clear that in this country, human rights are also rights of women – that consent is personal, not transferred,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Consent is obtained directly and not by proxy from a husband.”

Context

The husband, one of the worst sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was handed a sentence to 20 years in prison last year for drugging his wife at the time and soliciting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the town of Mazan over a span of many years of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found convicted in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to appeal against his conviction. He was first handed a term to nine years in prison, a punishment enhanced on Thursday to 10 years.

The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any accountability”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had initially sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his town in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the appeal trial, told the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “incapacitated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to assault my wife after I’ve sedated her unbeknownst to her.”

The courtroom became a key topic 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 allowed him into the residence, his actions had been permissible.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was shown visual proof of the victim's unconscious figure, comatose and snoring in a comatose state, while a grinning Dogan committed rape repeatedly over a timeframe of what investigators stated was several hours. The presiding judge said she had been at peril of death by asphyxiation. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been unaware and had not agreed.

Defendant's Statements

The defendant stated to the court the recordings were simply “sexual encounters” and rejected 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 the victim's husband had invited him to the home, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” 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, the defendant said: “I never wanted to harm that lady.”

Victim's Response

The victim, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers assembled to back her, addressed Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It’s a crime to assault an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you consent? At no time.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an international feminist hero after she gave up her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s failure to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is maybe in the midst of that, perhaps propelled by the collective awareness spurred by the revelation of your ordeal.”

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

The prosecutor addressed the defendant: “For as much as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an complete unpleasant cultural framework that you are supporting.”

Biographical Details

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five relocated to the nation of France, where his father worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his parent was abusive and that Dogan began using drugs aged ten. When Dogan was 17 he was stopped by police for drug trafficking and his parent evicted him the residence. He spent time in prison for drug dealing in his early 20s and had worked as a laborer but had faced periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had frequent sexual encounters outside their union. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had told a evaluator that once a year he engaged in transactional encounters on his special day. His lawyers informed the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the anxiety of the first trial.