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An individual was declared guilty on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and has had his jail term extended to 10 years.

Higher Court Case

The defendant, 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 panel of four women and five men, joined by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her residence in Provence in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a married father, reached out to the victim's then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom titled “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was looking for men to visit his house to rape his wife after he had sedated her into a deep sleep.

We expect the court will say loud and clear that in this country, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is personal, not delegated,” declared the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is secured personally and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Case History

Dominique Pelicot, a notorious sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and bringing in numerous individuals to sexually assault her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a duration of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found convicted in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to contest his conviction. He was first given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a punishment enhanced on Thursday to ten years.

The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any blame”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had first sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his village in the region to assault the victim, after notifying his wife he was leaving, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to briefly testify at the appeal trial, informed the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “sedated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to assault my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her consent.”

The trial became a key topic for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to claim he was innocent and had not committed rape, contending that because the victim's husband had invited him into the room, his behavior had been acceptable.

The panel in the higher court was displayed visual proof of the victim's limp body, comatose and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault multiple times over a period of what authorities reported was several hours. The judge said she had been at peril of death by asphyxiation. The state's case said there was absolute certainty that she had been unaware and had not given permission.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant told the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan stated to the court. “I proceeded because he convinced me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to injure that individual.”

Survivor's Statement

The survivor, who was cheered upon departing the trial each day by onlookers present to stand with her, said to the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you raped me? It is unlawful to rape an unconscious woman. When did I ever give you agreement? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she gave up her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

The prosecutor, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's failure to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The public is perhaps in the course of that, possibly motivated by the collective awareness resulting from the publication of your situation.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “outdated” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

Sie addressed the defendant: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole unpleasant social system that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was originated from the country of Turkey and at the age of five moved to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The court heard that his parent was aggressive and that the defendant began smoking cannabis at the age of ten. When Dogan was 17 he was apprehended by police for dealing drugs and his father evicted him the residence. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a builder 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 spouse worked in a school canteen. The court heard his spouse did not know he had frequent intimate relations beyond their marriage. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had stated to a evaluator that annually he sought transactional encounters on his special day. His legal representatives told the court he had a medical condition caused by the pressure of the original case.