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A man was declared guilty on retrial of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was sedated by her then-husband – and received his incarceration period increased to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his first conviction last year, experienced a new trial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

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

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a married father, connected with the victim's husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom titled “without her knowledge”, where the husband was looking for men to enter his residence to rape his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

“We hope the court will declare that in this nation, human rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is individual, not given by another,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, her legal representative. “Permission is secured directly and not through someone else from a husband.”

Context

The husband, a notorious sex offenders in recent French history, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his then wife and soliciting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a duration of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found guilty in a notable trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to challenge his sentence. He was initially handed a term to nine years in prison, a sentence raised on Thursday to ten years.

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

Courtroom Details

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

Pelicot, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the hearing, stated to the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to abuse my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.”

The proceedings became a key topic for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to claim he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the bedroom, his conduct had been permissible.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed visual proof of the victim's unresponsive form, sedated and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a smiling Dogan performed assault on several occasions over a period of what investigators stated was several hours. The judge said she had been at peril of death by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unaware and had not given permission.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan stated to the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He declared the court: “I did not commit rape.” 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 told the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to hurt that individual.”

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon leaving court each day by onlookers gathered to back her, addressed Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When will you admit you assaulted me? It is unlawful to assault an unaware woman. How could I have give you agreement? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an international feminist hero after she gave up her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

State's Argument

Sie, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s failure to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. The public is perhaps in the midst of that, maybe driven by the societal understanding spurred by the publication of your situation.”

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

Sie told the defendant: “While you reject it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an complete disturbing cultural framework that you are upholding.”

Personal History

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five relocated to the nation of France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The court heard that his parent was violent and that the defendant began using drugs aged 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was caught by authorities for drug trafficking and his parent evicted him the residence. He served time in prison for trafficking in his early 20s and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The court heard his spouse did not know he had regular sexual encounters outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. The defendant had stated to a evaluator that once a year he engaged in commercial sex on his birthday. His lawyers informed the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the anxiety of the first trial.