🔗 Share this article

A man was convicted on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was sedated by her then-husband – and received his incarceration period raised to a decade.

Higher Court Case

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

A panel of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her bedroom in southern France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a married father, made contact with the victim's then husband, the husband, in an internet forum called “without her knowledge”, where the husband was recruiting men to come to his home to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a unconscious state.

We expect the panel will say loud and clear that in this nation, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that consent is personal, not transferred,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, her legal representative. “Permission is obtained personally and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Case History

The ex-husband, one of the worst sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for drugging his spouse and soliciting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the community of Mazan over a duration of nearly ten years of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to contest his verdict. He was originally handed a term to nine years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any blame”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his village in Provence to rape the victim, after notifying his wife he was going out, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was brought from segregation in prison to temporarily testify at the retrial, stated to the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her unbeknownst to her.”

The courtroom became a key topic for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to assert he was innocent and had not committed rape, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had welcomed him into the bedroom, his conduct had been justifiable.

The jury in the higher court was presented with visual proof of the victim's unresponsive form, sedated and snoring in a deep sleep, while a grinning Dogan committed rape multiple times over a timeframe of what authorities reported was several hours. The presiding judge said she had been at risk of death by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been incapacitated and had not consented.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant told the court the videos were simply “sexual encounters” and disputed it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He told the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him to the house, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” Dogan told the court. “I continued because he convinced me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to harm that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

Gisèle Pelicot, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers present to back her, said to Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is illegal to rape an unconscious woman. When did I ever give you consent? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she gave up her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take accountability showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The public is perhaps in the course of that, possibly motivated by the societal understanding resulting from the exposure of your ordeal.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “archaic” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor said to the defendant: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole disturbing social system that you are supporting.”

Personal History

The accused was originated from Turkey and at the age of five moved to the nation of France, where his father worked as a building manager. The testimony revealed that his parent was aggressive and that the defendant began using drugs aged ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was stopped by police for selling narcotics and his parent kicked him out the residence. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a construction worker but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a son 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 sexual encounters outside their union. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. The defendant had told a evaluator that each year he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His attorneys informed the court he had arthritis triggered by the anxiety of the first trial.