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A defendant was declared guilty on retrial of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her husband – and has had his jail term increased to ten years.

Appeal Trial

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his first conviction last year, experienced a new trial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A panel of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her home in Provence in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a family man, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform called “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was seeking men to enter his residence to assault his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

We trust the panel will declare that in this nation, human rights are also women’s rights – that consent is personal, not given by another,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Permission is received personally and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Context

The ex-husband, one of the worst sexual predators in modern French history, was handed a sentence to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his spouse and soliciting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a duration of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found convicted in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to appeal against his verdict. He was originally handed a term to nine years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any accountability”.

Testimony and Proof

Dogan had initially sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his residence in the region to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was transported from segregation in prison to briefly testify at the hearing, stated to the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious unbeknownst to her.”

The proceedings became a key topic for a broader debate on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to assert he was not guilty and had not engaged in violation, stating that because the victim's husband had invited him into the residence, his behavior had been permissible.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown visual proof of the victim's limp body, sedated and breathing heavily in a deep sleep, while a grinning Dogan engaged in violation repeatedly over a period of what police said was several hours. The court official said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by choking. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been incapacitated and had not consented.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant stated to the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. 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 manipulated by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan stated to the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to hurt that woman.”

Survivor's Statement

The victim, who was cheered upon departing the trial each day by crowds present to support her, addressed Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you admit you violated me? It is illegal to assault an unaware woman. How could I have give you consent? At no time.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an global icon after she waived her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's refusal to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is maybe in the midst of that, perhaps propelled by the public consciousness brought by the revelation of your case.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how rape culture was still prevalent in society as part of “outdated” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor told Dogan: “While you deny it, it’s not just a woman, 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 moved to France, where his father worked as a building manager. The testimony revealed that his parent was violent and that the defendant began using drugs at the age of ten. When he was 17 he was stopped by authorities for dealing drugs and his parent kicked him out the family house. He served time in prison for trafficking in his early 20s and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had repeated intimate relations outside their union. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had informed a evaluator that once a year he sought commercial sex on his special day. His legal representatives informed the court he had arthritis caused by the stress of the original case.