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A defendant was convicted on retrial of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband – and received his incarceration period extended to ten years.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a new trial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A jury of nine jurors, joined by three judges, ruled against 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 evidence showed that Dogan, a family man, made contact with the victim's then husband, the husband, in an internet forum titled “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was seeking men to enter his residence to assault his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a unconscious state.

“We hope the panel will say loud and clear that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that consent is individual, not transferred,” said the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is received directly and not through someone else from a husband.”

Context

The husband, one of the worst sexual predators in recent French history, was given a prison term to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his then wife and inviting numerous individuals to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a span of many years of their marriage.

Numerous other individuals were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to contest his conviction. He was originally handed a term to nine years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to ten years.

The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any responsibility”.

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had first sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his residence in Provence to assault the victim, after telling his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily testify at the retrial, informed the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “sedated” and he said to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to violate my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her consent.”

The proceedings became a central issue for a larger conversation on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to assert he was innocent and had not engaged in violation, contending 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 presented with video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s unresponsive form, sedated and snoring in a comatose state, while a grinning Dogan committed rape on several occasions over a timeframe of what investigators stated was three and a half hours. The judge said she had been at danger of death by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant told the court the recordings were simply “sexual encounters” and denied it was violation. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He stated the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the house, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I tried to halt,” the accused told the court. “I proceeded because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to harm that lady.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds assembled to support her, addressed Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It is illegal to rape an unaware woman. At what point did I give you consent? At no time.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she waived her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

State's Argument

Sie, addressing the victim in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. The community is maybe in the midst of that, maybe propelled by the collective awareness brought by the exposure of your ordeal.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still common in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “male domination”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor told the defendant: “For as much as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire disturbing social system that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his parent was abusive and that Dogan began consuming marijuana aged ten. When he was 17 he was apprehended by police for dealing drugs and his parent kicked him out of home. He served time in prison for trafficking in his early 20s and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of living on the streets.

He was married and had a son with special needs, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had repeated intimate relations beyond their marriage. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had stated to a mental health expert that annually he sought commercial sex on his birthday. His lawyers informed the court he had joint inflammation triggered by the anxiety of the first trial.