A man has been found guilty on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her husband – and was given his incarceration period extended to 10 years.
The defendant, 44, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a appeal hearing this week at the higher court in Nîmes.
A jury of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping the victim in her bedroom in the south of France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.
The testimony revealed that Dogan, a family man, reached out to the victim's then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom named “without her knowledge”, where the husband was seeking men to visit his house to rape his wife after he had sedated her into a deep sleep.
We trust the court will affirm that in this country, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that permission is individual, not delegated,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Consent is received directly and not through someone else from a spouse.”
The husband, among the most severe sexual predators in modern French history, was handed a sentence to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and bringing in dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a period of almost a decade of their union.
Numerous other individuals were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to challenge his verdict. He was initially sentenced to 9 years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to ten years.
The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any responsibility”.
The defendant had first sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his village in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was stepping out, the testimony revealed.
The ex-husband, who was brought from segregation in prison to briefly testify at the retrial, stated to the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I seek someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her consent.”
The trial became a focus point for a broader debate on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to claim he was innocent and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the residence, his conduct had been permissible.
The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with visual proof of the victim's unconscious figure, comatose and snoring in a comatose state, while a grinning Dogan performed assault repeatedly over a duration of what investigators stated was 3.5 hours. The presiding judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by choking. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unaware and had not agreed.
Dogan told the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was rape. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the residence, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” the accused told the court. “I continued because he reassured me.”
Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to injure that lady.”
The survivor, who was cheered upon leaving court each day by supporters assembled to back her, said to Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is unlawful to assault an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you permission? Never.”
Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an global icon after she relinquished her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”
Sie, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's refusal to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is maybe in the course of that, possibly driven by the collective awareness resulting from the publication of your ordeal.”
Sie said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how rape culture was still common in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”
Sie addressed Dogan: “For as much as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole disturbing cultural framework that you are upholding.”
The accused was originated from the country of Turkey and at the age of five moved to France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his parent was abusive and that the defendant began smoking cannabis at the age of ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was apprehended by police for dealing drugs and his parent forced him to leave of home. He served time in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a laborer but had faced periods of living on the streets.
He was married and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his wife did not know he had frequent extramarital activities beyond their marriage. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. Dogan had told a mental health expert that once a year he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His attorneys informed the court he had joint inflammation triggered by the anxiety of the original case.
Marlon Vance is a seasoned sports analyst with over a decade of experience in betting markets, specializing in data-driven predictions and strategy development.
