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A man has been found guilty on higher court review of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and has had his jail term extended to a decade.

Higher Court Case

The defendant, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a retrial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

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

The court heard that the accused, a family man, connected with the victim's spouse, the husband, in an online chatroom titled “without her consent”, where Pelicot was looking for men to come to his home to assault his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

We trust the jury will affirm that in this nation, human rights are also women’s rights – that consent is individual, not given by another,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is obtained directly and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Background

Dominique Pelicot, among the most severe sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to two decades in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and inviting dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the community of Mazan over a span of many years of their union.

Fifty other men were found culpable in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to contest his conviction. He was originally given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a sentence enhanced on Thursday to 10 years.

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

Courtroom Details

Dogan had first sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his town in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily testify at the hearing, stated to the court that the accused had known his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to assault my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”

The courtroom became a central issue for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to say he was not guilty and had not engaged in violation, contending that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the bedroom, his behavior had been justifiable.

The panel in the higher court was shown video evidence of the victim's limp body, comatose 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 court official said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The state's case said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Defendant's Statements

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 rape. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” the accused told the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to harm that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by onlookers gathered to support her, told the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you violated me? It is illegal to rape an incapacitated woman. How could I have give you agreement? Never.”

The victim, 72, became an global icon after she waived her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's failure to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. The community is perhaps in the course of that, maybe propelled by the collective awareness spurred by the exposure of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how rape culture was still prevalent in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a culture of consent.”

The prosecutor addressed Dogan: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole unpleasant cultural framework that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 came to France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The court heard that his father was abusive and that the defendant began consuming marijuana at the age of ten. When Dogan was 17 he was apprehended by police for selling narcotics and his parent evicted him of home. He spent time in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a builder but had experienced periods of living on the streets.

He was wed and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had frequent intimate relations outside their marriage. His defence said this was his way of coping with his stressful life. Dogan had stated to a evaluator that once a year he looked for commercial sex on his special day. His legal representatives informed the court he had arthritis caused by the stress of the initial proceedings.