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A defendant was declared guilty on retrial of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her husband – and has had his prison sentence extended to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

The defendant, 44, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a appeal hearing this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A panel of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her home in southern France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a married father, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, the husband, in an internet forum titled “without her consent”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to come to his home to rape his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a deep sleep.

We expect the court will say loud and clear that in this society, human rights are also women’s rights – that consent is individual, not given by another,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Permission is secured personally and not via a representative from a husband.”

Case History

The ex-husband, a notorious sexual predators in modern French history, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his wife at the time and soliciting dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a period of many years of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found culpable in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to appeal against his verdict. He was initially handed a term to 9 years in prison, a sentence increased on Thursday to a decade.

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

Evidence Presented

The defendant had initially sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his residence in the region to rape the victim, after notifying his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily testify at the retrial, told the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “sedated” and he said to men by phone: “I seek someone to violate my wife after I’ve sedated her without her knowledge.”

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 engaged in violation, arguing that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the residence, his behavior had been permissible.

The jury in the higher court was shown video evidence of the victim's limp body, sedated and snoring in a comatose state, while a grinning Dogan performed assault on several occasions over a period of what authorities reported was several hours. The judge said she had been at danger of death by choking. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been unaware and had not given permission.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan informed the court the videos were simply “sex scenes” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He declared 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,” Dogan stated to the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to harm that lady.”

Survivor's Statement

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon leaving court each day by supporters present to support her, told Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is illegal to rape an unconscious woman. When did I ever give you agreement? Never.”

The victim, 72, became an international feminist hero after she gave up her right to anonymity 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 unwillingness to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The public is perhaps in the process of that, perhaps motivated by the societal understanding spurred by the exposure of your ordeal.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how societal tolerance was still common in society as part of “outdated” forms of “male domination”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor addressed the defendant: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole sordid societal structure that you are supporting.”

Biographical Details

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his parent was violent and that the defendant began smoking cannabis at the age of ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was caught by authorities for drug trafficking and his father kicked him out the residence. He spent time in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a builder but had undergone periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had regular extramarital activities outside their marriage. His defence said this was his way of coping with his stressful life. Dogan had told a evaluator that each year he sought transactional encounters on his special day. His attorneys informed the court he had a medical condition resulting from the anxiety of the initial proceedings.