France's Higher Tribunal Increases Sentence for Gisele Pelicot Rapist

A man was declared guilty on higher court review of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and was given his jail term extended to ten years.

Retrial Proceedings

Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a new trial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A jury of nine jurors, accompanied by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her bedroom in the south of France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a married father, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom titled “without her knowledge”, where the husband was looking for men to enter his residence to assault his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a unconscious state.

We expect the court will declare that in this society, human rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is personal, not delegated,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, her legal representative. “Permission is secured directly and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Case History

The ex-husband, one of the worst sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for drugging his spouse and inviting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a duration of many years of their union.

Fifty other men were found culpable in a notable trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to appeal against his verdict. He was initially given a sentence to nine years in prison, a penalty enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

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

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his town in Provence to rape the victim, after notifying his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was transported from isolation in prison to briefly give evidence at the retrial, told the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “drugged” and he told to men by phone: “I want someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her unbeknownst to her.”

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

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with recorded footage of the victim's unconscious figure, comatose and breathing heavily in a deep sleep, while a grinning Dogan engaged in violation repeatedly over a timeframe of what police said was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at risk of death by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed.

Defendant's Statements

The defendant informed the court the recordings were simply “sexual encounters” and disputed it was violation. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He declared the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan informed the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to injure that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters gathered to back her, addressed Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you assaulted me? It’s a crime to assault an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you permission? At no time.”

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

State's Argument

The prosecutor, 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 course of that, possibly propelled by the collective awareness spurred by the revelation of your ordeal.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how societal tolerance was still prevalent in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “male domination”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor told the defendant: “While you reject it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an complete sordid social system that you are supporting.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of five relocated to France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The testimony revealed that his parent was abusive and that Dogan began using drugs aged ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was caught by police for selling narcotics and his father forced him to leave the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a builder but had experienced 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 spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had frequent sexual encounters outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had informed a evaluator that each year he looked for transactional encounters on his special day. His attorneys told the court he had arthritis triggered by the anxiety of the original case.