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An individual has been found guilty on appeal of raping Gisele Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her then-husband – and has had his jail term extended to 10 years.

Appeal Trial

The defendant, 44, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his first conviction last year, experienced a new trial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A jury of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her residence in southern France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that the accused, a married father, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, the husband, in an online chatroom titled “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was recruiting men to enter his residence to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

We trust the panel will say loud and clear that in this society, human rights are also women’s rights – that permission is individual, not delegated,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is secured personally and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Case History

The ex-husband, among the most severe sexual predators in modern French history, was handed a sentence to 20 years in prison last year for drugging his wife at the time and inviting numerous individuals to sexually assault her in her home in the town of Mazan over a span of many years of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to appeal against his conviction. He was first handed a term to 9 years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to ten years.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any blame”.

Evidence Presented

Dogan had first sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his town in Provence to rape the victim, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to briefly testify at the hearing, stated to the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve sedated her without her knowledge.”

The proceedings became a central issue for a wider discussion on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to say he was not guilty and had not committed rape, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the residence, his behavior had been acceptable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown video evidence of the victim's unresponsive form, comatose and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator committed rape repeatedly over a timeframe of what police said was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by choking. The prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant told the court the recordings were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was assault. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He told the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the residence, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” the accused told the court. “I carried on because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to harm that individual.”

Survivor's Statement

The survivor, who was cheered upon departing the trial each day by crowds present to back her, told Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you violated me? It is illegal to assault an unaware woman. At what point did I give you consent? Not once.”

The victim, 72, became an international feminist hero after she relinquished her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

State's Argument

Sie, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. The public is possibly in the midst of that, perhaps propelled by the societal understanding resulting from the exposure of your case.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still common in society as part of “outdated” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a culture of consent.”

The prosecutor said to Dogan: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an complete unpleasant societal structure that you are upholding.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The court heard that his parent was abusive and that Dogan began smoking cannabis aged ten. When he was seventeen he was caught by authorities for selling narcotics and his parent evicted him of home. He served time in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had undergone periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a child with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The court heard his spouse did not know he had frequent sexual encounters outside their marriage. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. The defendant had told a evaluator that annually he engaged in commercial sex on his special day. His attorneys told the court he had a medical condition caused by the anxiety of the original case.