🔗 Share this article

A defendant has been found guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was sedated by her husband – and received his jail term raised to ten years.

Higher Court Case

The defendant, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a retrial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A jury of four women and five men, accompanied by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her home in southern France in the early hours 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 internet forum named “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to come to his home to assault his wife once he had drugged her into a comatose state.

We expect the court will affirm that in this society, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that consent is personal, not delegated,” declared the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Agreement is obtained personally and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Case History

Dominique Pelicot, one of the worst sexual predators in modern French history, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for drugging his then wife and soliciting numerous individuals to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to challenge his sentence. He was first handed a term to 9 years in prison, a penalty enhanced on Thursday to ten years.

The chief prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any blame”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his town in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was leaving, the evidence indicated.

The ex-husband, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the appeal trial, told the court that the accused had known his wife had been “sedated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.”

The proceedings became a key topic for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to assert he was blameless and had not perpetrated assault, stating that because the victim's husband had invited him into the room, his actions had been justifiable.

The panel in the higher court was shown video evidence of the victim's unconscious figure, comatose and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a smiling the perpetrator committed rape repeatedly over a period of what police said was several hours. The presiding judge said she had been at danger of death by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been incapacitated and had not given permission.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan told the court the recordings were simply “sexual encounters” and disputed it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He stated the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I attempted to cease,” the accused stated to the court. “I continued because he convinced me.”

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

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds assembled to support her, said to the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you admit you violated me? It is unlawful to assault an unaware woman. At what point did I give you agreement? Not once.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an global icon after she relinquished her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's failure to take blame showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The community is perhaps in the course of that, perhaps propelled by the societal understanding brought by the publication of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still common in society as part of “archaic” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

Sie addressed the defendant: “While you reject it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole sordid social system that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The testimony revealed that his father was aggressive and that the defendant began smoking cannabis aged 10. When he was 17 he was stopped by police for selling narcotics and his father kicked him out of home. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had faced periods of living on the streets.

He was married and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had frequent extramarital activities beyond their marriage. His defence said this was his way of coping with his stressful life. Dogan had told a evaluator that annually he sought commercial sex on his special day. His lawyers told the court he had joint inflammation triggered by the anxiety of the initial proceedings.