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A man has been found guilty on appeal of raping Gisele Pelicot after she was sedated by her spouse – and received his incarceration period raised to a decade.

Higher Court Case

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a new trial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A panel of nine jurors, accompanied by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her home in Provence in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that Dogan, a family man, reached out to the victim's husband at the time, the husband, in an digital platform titled “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to come to his home to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

We expect the court will declare that in this country, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that permission is personal, not transferred,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Consent is received directly and not via a representative from a husband.”

Background

The husband, one of the worst sexual predators in recent French history, was handed a sentence to twenty years in prison last year for drugging his then wife and soliciting numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the community of Mazan over a period of almost a decade of their union.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to challenge his sentence. He was initially handed a term to 9 years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to 10 years.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve twelve years, because he “completely denies to take any blame”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had first sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his residence in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was leaving, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the appeal trial, informed the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The trial became a central issue for a broader debate on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to say he was innocent and had not perpetrated assault, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had welcomed him into the bedroom, his actions had been acceptable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed video evidence of the victim's unresponsive form, comatose and breathing heavily in a deep sleep, while a grinning Dogan engaged in violation on several occasions over a duration of what police said was three and a half hours. The presiding judge said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state's case said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan stated to the court the recordings were simply “sex scenes” and denied it was violation. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. 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,” Dogan told the court. “I continued because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to injure that woman.”

Victim's Response

The survivor, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters assembled to stand with her, addressed Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you admit you assaulted me? It is unlawful to rape an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you agreement? Never.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an symbol of resistance after she relinquished her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, addressing the victim in court, said the defendant's refusal to take blame showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. Society is perhaps in the process of that, maybe driven by the collective awareness resulting from the publication of your case.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

Sie said to Dogan: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire sordid cultural framework that you are supporting.”

Personal History

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 evidence indicated that his parent was aggressive and that the defendant began smoking cannabis at the age of ten. When he was 17 he was apprehended by police for drug trafficking and his father evicted him of home. He served time in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a child with special needs, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a educational cafeteria. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had repeated extramarital activities outside their marriage. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had told a mental health expert that each year he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His attorneys informed the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the anxiety of the first trial.