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A man has been found guilty on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her then-husband – and has had his incarceration period extended to a decade.

Appeal Trial

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

A jury of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her bedroom in the south of France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a married father, made contact with the victim's spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom named “without her consent”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to enter his residence to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a deep sleep.

We expect the jury will affirm that in this society, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that permission is individual, not transferred,” declared the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Permission is received directly and not by proxy from a husband.”

Case History

Dominique Pelicot, a notorious sexual predators in modern French history, was given a prison term to two decades in prison last year for incapacitating his then wife and bringing in multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found convicted in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to challenge his sentence. He was first given a sentence to nine years in prison, a punishment enhanced on Thursday to ten years.

The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any accountability”.

Testimony and Proof

Dogan had first sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his village in the region to assault the victim, after telling his wife he was leaving, the evidence indicated.

The ex-husband, who was brought from segregation in prison to temporarily testify at the hearing, stated to the court that the accused had known his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to abuse my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her consent.”

The proceedings became a key topic for a larger conversation on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to claim he was innocent and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had welcomed him into the bedroom, his behavior had been permissible.

The jury in the higher court was presented with visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, comatose and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning Dogan committed rape multiple times over a timeframe of what investigators stated was several hours. The court official said she had been at peril of death by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan informed the court the footage were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was violation. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I tried to halt,” the accused stated to the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to injure that woman.”

Victim's Response

The victim, who was applauded upon leaving court each day by crowds assembled to stand with her, addressed the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It’s a crime to assault an unaware woman. At what point did I give you permission? Not once.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she relinquished her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

State's Argument

Sie, turning to the victim in court, said the defendant's failure to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is maybe in the course of that, perhaps driven by the public consciousness resulting from the publication of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how rape culture was still widespread in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

Sie told Dogan: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an complete disturbing cultural framework that you are endorsing.”

Personal History

The accused was originated from Turkey and at the age of five relocated to the nation of France, where his father worked as a building manager. The testimony revealed that his parent was abusive and that the defendant began using drugs aged 10. When Dogan was 17 he was caught by authorities for dealing drugs and his parent forced him to leave the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his early 20s and had worked as a builder but had experienced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a son with a genetic condition, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had frequent intimate relations outside their union. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his stressful life. The defendant had told a evaluator that annually he engaged in commercial sex on his birthday. His attorneys stated to the court he had a medical condition triggered by the pressure of the initial proceedings.