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A man has been found guilty on higher court review of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her husband – and has had his jail term increased to a decade.

Higher Court Case

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

A jury of four women and five men, accompanied by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her home in southern France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a family man, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform named “without her consent”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to come to his home to assault his wife once he had drugged her into a comatose state.

We trust the court will declare that in this society, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that consent is individual, not delegated,” declared the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is secured directly and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Case History

The husband, among the most severe sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to 20 years in prison last year for drugging his spouse and inviting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the community of Mazan over a span of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Numerous other individuals were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to contest his sentence. He was initially sentenced to 9 years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to a decade.

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

Courtroom Details

The defendant had initially sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his town in Provence to assault the victim, after informing his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was brought from isolation in prison to briefly provide testimony at the appeal trial, told the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to violate my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her consent.”

The proceedings became a key topic for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to say he was blameless and had not engaged in violation, contending that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the bedroom, his behavior had been permissible.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed video evidence of the victim's unconscious figure, comatose and breathing heavily in a deep sleep, while a smiling Dogan performed assault repeatedly over a timeframe of what investigators stated was 3.5 hours. The presiding judge said she had been at danger of death by suffocation. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not consented.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan stated to the court the footage were simply “sexual encounters” and disputed it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the house, and therefore it was OK. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” the accused informed the court. “I continued because he reassured me.”

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

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by supporters present to support her, told Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you assaulted me? It’s a crime to assault an unconscious woman. When did I ever give you consent? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an global icon after she relinquished her right to anonymity 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 failure to take blame showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. Society is perhaps in the process of that, perhaps propelled by the collective awareness resulting from the revelation of your ordeal.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

Sie addressed Dogan: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an complete disturbing cultural framework that you are upholding.”

Personal History

The accused was originated from Turkey and at the age of 5 came to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his father was violent and that the defendant began consuming marijuana at the age of 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was apprehended by police for selling narcotics and his parent kicked him out the residence. He served time in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had undergone periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had repeated sexual encounters beyond their union. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. Dogan had stated to a court psychologist that once a year he looked for transactional encounters on his birthday. His lawyers informed the court he had arthritis resulting from the anxiety of the initial proceedings.