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A defendant was convicted on higher court review of raping Gisele Pelicot after she was sedated by her husband – and received his jail term extended to ten years.

Higher Court Case

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

A panel of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her residence in Provence in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a married father, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum named “without her knowledge”, where the husband was seeking men to enter his residence to rape his wife after he had sedated her into a deep sleep.

We trust the court will declare that in this nation, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that agreement is personal, not delegated,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, her legal representative. “Agreement is received directly and not through someone else from a husband.”

Case History

The ex-husband, a notorious sexual predators in recent French history, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for sedating his spouse and inviting dozens of men to rape her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a period of almost a decade of their union.

Fifty other men were found culpable in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to appeal against his verdict. He was first given a sentence to nine years in prison, a punishment raised on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any responsibility”.

Evidence Presented

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

Pelicot, who was brought from segregation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the hearing, stated to the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “sedated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve put her to sleep unbeknownst to her.”

The trial became a key topic for a larger conversation on sexual violence norms in society as the defendant continued to assert he was not guilty and had not committed rape, stating that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the room, his behavior had been acceptable.

The panel in the higher court was shown visual proof of the victim's limp body, unconscious and breathing heavily in a deep sleep, while a smiling the perpetrator performed assault repeatedly over a timeframe of what authorities reported was several hours. The court official said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by suffocation. The prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan informed the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not assault. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him to the home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I tried to halt,” the accused informed the court. “I proceeded because he reassured me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to injure that woman.”

Survivor's Statement

The survivor, who was supported upon leaving court each day by supporters present to stand with her, told 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 agreement? Never.”

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

State's Argument

Sie, addressing the victim in court, said Dogan’s failure to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The public is maybe in the course of that, maybe propelled by the societal understanding resulting from the publication of your case.”

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

The prosecutor said to Dogan: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire unpleasant societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Personal History

The accused was originated from Turkey and at the age of five relocated to the nation of France, where his father worked as a concierge. The evidence indicated that his father was abusive and that the defendant began using drugs at the age of ten. When he was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for dealing drugs and his parent forced him to leave of home. He served time in prison for narcotics offenses in his early 20s and had worked as a laborer but had faced periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a son with a genetic condition, who he was the primary guardian for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had repeated sexual encounters beyond their marriage. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. The defendant had stated to a mental health expert that annually he looked for transactional encounters on his special day. His attorneys stated to the court he had joint inflammation triggered by the pressure of the original case.