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A defendant was convicted on appeal of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and was given his prison sentence increased to 10 years.

Appeal Trial

Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his first conviction last year, experienced a new trial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

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

The evidence showed that the accused, a family man, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum titled “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was looking for men to visit his house to rape his wife once he had sedated her into a comatose state.

“We hope the court will affirm that in this country, human rights are also women’s rights – that permission is individual, not given by another,” stated the victim's attorney, her legal representative. “Agreement is received personally and not by proxy from a husband.”

Case History

The husband, a notorious sexual predators in modern French history, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for sedating his spouse and soliciting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the town 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 the appellant was the single defendant to contest his sentence. He was first sentenced to 9 years in prison, a punishment raised on Thursday to 10 years.

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

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his town in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to briefly testify at the appeal trial, informed 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 abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her without her knowledge.”

The proceedings became a central issue for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to claim he was not guilty and had not engaged in violation, stating that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the room, his behavior had been permissible.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed recorded footage of the victim's unresponsive form, comatose and snoring in a deep sleep, while a smiling the perpetrator committed rape on several occasions over a period of what investigators stated was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state's case said there was no doubt that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant told the court the footage were simply “intimate moments” and disputed it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan stated to the court. “I continued because he convinced me.”

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

Survivor's Statement

The survivor, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters gathered to stand with her, said to the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is illegal to rape an incapacitated woman. How could I have give you permission? At no time.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an global icon after she gave up her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, speaking to the victim in court, said Dogan’s failure to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. Society is maybe in the midst of that, perhaps driven by the collective awareness brought by the exposure of your situation.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how societal tolerance was still widespread in society as part of “archaic” forms of “male domination”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor told the defendant: “For as much as you reject it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole disturbing cultural framework that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The court heard that his parent was abusive and that the defendant began smoking cannabis at the age of 10. When he was seventeen he was apprehended by authorities for drug trafficking and his parent forced him to leave of home. He spent time in prison for trafficking in his early 20s and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his spouse did not know he had regular extramarital activities outside their marriage. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. The defendant had informed a court psychologist that each year he looked for paid sex on his special day. His legal representatives stated to the court he had arthritis caused by the pressure of the first trial.