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An individual has been found guilty on higher court review of raping Gisele Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her then-husband – and was given his jail term raised to 10 years.

Retrial Proceedings

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

A jury of four women and five men, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her residence in the south of France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a married father, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform named “without her consent”, where Pelicot was seeking men to visit his house to assault his wife after he had drugged her into a unconscious state.

We expect the court will affirm that in this nation, human rights are also women’s rights – that consent is individual, not given by another,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is received directly and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Background

The ex-husband, a notorious sex offenders in modern French history, was given a prison term to 20 years in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and bringing in multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a duration of almost a decade of their marriage.

Numerous other individuals were found culpable in a notable trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to contest his sentence. He was initially sentenced to 9 years in prison, a punishment enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any accountability”.

Evidence Presented

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

Pelicot, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily give evidence at the hearing, informed the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “sedated” and he told to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to violate my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious unbeknownst to her.”

The trial became a key topic for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to assert he was not guilty and had not engaged in violation, arguing that because the victim's husband had invited him into the room, his actions had been permissible.

The jury in the higher court was presented with visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s unresponsive form, sedated and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning Dogan committed rape repeatedly over a timeframe of what investigators stated was three and a half hours. The presiding judge said she had been at risk of death by suffocation. The prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant informed the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was violation. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the house, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused stated to the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

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

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by supporters assembled to stand with her, addressed the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you acknowledge you raped me? It’s a crime to assault an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you permission? Never.”

The victim, 72, became an international feminist hero after she waived her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

State's Argument

Sie, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is perhaps in the course of that, possibly propelled by the societal understanding brought by the exposure of your case.”

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

Sie said to the defendant: “While you reject it, it’s not just a person, it’s an entire sordid cultural framework that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was originated from Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The court heard that his parent was violent and that the defendant began consuming marijuana at the age of 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was caught by police for selling narcotics and his father kicked him out of home. He served time in prison for trafficking in his early 20s and had worked as a construction worker but had faced periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a son with a genetic condition, who he was the primary guardian for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The court heard his wife did not know he had repeated intimate relations outside their marriage. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. The defendant had told a court psychologist that annually he sought commercial sex on his birthday. His attorneys stated to the court he had joint inflammation triggered by the pressure of the first trial.