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An individual has been found guilty on higher court review of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her spouse – and received his jail term increased to 10 years.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had contested his first conviction last year, experienced a retrial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A panel of four women and five men, accompanied by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her residence in Provence in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that Dogan, a family man, connected with the victim's husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform titled “without her consent”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to come to his home to assault his wife after he had drugged her into a comatose state.

We trust the court will affirm that in this country, human rights are also women’s rights – that consent is personal, not given by another,” stated the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Consent is obtained directly and not by proxy from a husband.”

Context

The ex-husband, a notorious sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was handed a sentence to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his spouse and soliciting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a duration of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to contest his sentence. He was initially handed a term to nine years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to a decade.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any responsibility”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had initially sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his residence in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was leaving, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the appeal trial, informed the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “incapacitated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to abuse my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her consent.”

The trial became a central issue for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to assert he was blameless and had not committed rape, arguing that because the victim's husband had invited him into the residence, his behavior had been justifiable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with recorded footage of the victim's unresponsive form, sedated and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a smiling the perpetrator performed assault repeatedly over a period of what investigators stated was several hours. The judge said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by suffocation. The prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant stated to the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He told the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” Dogan informed the court. “I proceeded because he reassured me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to injure that lady.”

Victim's Response

The victim, who was supported upon leaving court each day by supporters gathered to support her, told the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It’s a crime to assault an unaware woman. At what point did I give you consent? Not once.”

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

Prosecutor's Remarks

The prosecutor, addressing the victim in court, said the defendant's failure to take accountability showed that: “The shame remains. The community is maybe in the midst of that, possibly propelled by the public consciousness spurred by the publication of your case.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how societal tolerance was still widespread in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

Sie said to the defendant: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a person, it’s an entire sordid societal structure that you are supporting.”

Personal History

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five moved to the nation of France, where his father worked as a concierge. The evidence indicated that his parent was aggressive and that Dogan began smoking cannabis aged ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was apprehended by authorities for dealing drugs and his father kicked him out of home. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his early 20s and had worked as a builder but had undergone periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a child with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The court heard his spouse did not know he had repeated intimate relations beyond their union. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. The defendant had told a evaluator that once a year he looked for commercial sex on his special day. His lawyers informed the court he had a medical condition triggered by the anxiety of the original case.