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An individual was convicted on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her then-husband – and was given his jail term extended to a decade.

Higher Court Case

The defendant, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his first conviction last year, experienced a new trial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her home in southern France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The testimony revealed that the accused, a married father, connected with the victim's husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom titled “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was looking for men to visit his house to assault his wife after he had sedated her into a comatose state.

“We hope the panel will declare that in this society, human rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is individual, not given by another,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Consent is secured directly and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Context

The husband, among the most severe sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was handed a sentence to 20 years in prison last year for incapacitating his wife at the time and bringing in multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their union.

Fifty other men were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to contest his verdict. He was initially handed a term to nine years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any responsibility”.

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had first sent the husband graphic images and then driven an hour from his town in the region to rape the victim, after notifying his wife he was leaving, the testimony revealed.

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

The trial became a key topic for a larger conversation on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to claim he was innocent 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 higher court was presented with video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, sedated and breathing heavily in a deep sleep, while a smiling the perpetrator committed rape on several occasions over a period of what authorities reported was 3.5 hours. The presiding judge said she had been at peril of death by choking. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unaware and had not consented.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan told the court the footage were simply “sexual encounters” and denied it was violation. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He declared the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” the accused told the court. “I continued because he convinced me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to injure that individual.”

Survivor's Statement

The victim, who was applauded upon leaving court each day by onlookers gathered to stand with her, said to the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It is unlawful to assault an unconscious woman. When did I ever give you permission? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she relinquished her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

State's Argument

The prosecutor, turning to the victim in court, said Dogan’s failure to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. The public is maybe in the process of that, perhaps driven by the collective awareness brought by the exposure of your ordeal.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

Sie told Dogan: “While you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire unpleasant cultural framework that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 came to France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The court heard that his father was abusive and that Dogan began consuming marijuana at the age of 10. When he was 17 he was stopped by police for dealing drugs and his parent kicked him out the family house. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had faced periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The court heard his wife did not know he had frequent intimate relations outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. Dogan had told a evaluator that annually he looked for commercial sex on his birthday. His legal representatives informed the court he had joint inflammation triggered by the anxiety of the first trial.