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An individual has been found guilty on retrial of raping Gisele Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband – and was given his incarceration period increased to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his first conviction last year, experienced a appeal hearing this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A jury of nine jurors, joined by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping the victim in her home in the south of France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a family man, made contact with the victim's husband at the time, the husband, in an digital platform named “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was seeking men to come to his home to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

We trust the court will say loud and clear that in this country, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that agreement is personal, not given by another,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, her legal representative. “Consent is obtained directly and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Background

The husband, one of the worst sexual predators in recent French history, was given a prison term to two decades in prison last year for sedating his then wife and bringing in dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the community of Mazan over a span of nearly ten years of their union.

Fifty other men were found convicted in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to appeal against his sentence. He was originally handed a term to nine years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to a decade.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any accountability”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then driven an hour from his village in Provence to rape the victim, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was brought from isolation in prison to briefly testify at the retrial, informed the court that the accused had known his wife had been “sedated” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep unbeknownst to her.”

The courtroom became a focus point for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to assert he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had welcomed him into the room, his actions had been acceptable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with video evidence of the victim's limp body, comatose and snoring in a comatose state, while a smiling Dogan performed assault multiple times over a duration of what investigators stated was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unaware and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant stated to the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and denied it was violation. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. He told the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I tried to halt,” Dogan informed the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to injure that lady.”

Pelicot's Words

The victim, who was applauded upon leaving court each day by supporters gathered to back her, addressed the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you violated me? It is illegal to rape an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you consent? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an international feminist hero after she waived her right to privacy 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 refusal to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. The community is perhaps in the course of that, perhaps motivated by the public consciousness resulting from the exposure of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how societal tolerance was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

The prosecutor said to the defendant: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole unpleasant societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Personal History

The accused was originated from the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to the nation of France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The court heard that his parent was aggressive and that Dogan began smoking cannabis at the age of ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was apprehended by police for selling narcotics and his father forced him to leave of home. He served time in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had regular sexual encounters outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his stressful life. The defendant had stated to a evaluator that annually he sought transactional encounters on his special day. His attorneys stated to the court he had a medical condition triggered by the stress of the first trial.