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An individual was declared guilty on higher court review of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was sedated by her then-husband – and was given his prison sentence increased to ten years.

Retrial Proceedings

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had contested his first conviction last year, underwent a retrial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A panel of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her home in the south of France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a family man, made contact with the victim's spouse, the husband, in an internet forum called “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was seeking men to come to his home to rape his wife once he had drugged her into a comatose state.

We expect the panel will declare that in this country, human rights are also rights of women – that agreement is individual, not given by another,” declared the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Consent is received directly and not by proxy from a husband.”

Background

The husband, one of the worst sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to two decades in prison last year for drugging his wife at the time and soliciting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the community of Mazan over a period of almost a decade of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to challenge his conviction. He was originally given a sentence to nine years in prison, a sentence increased on Thursday to a decade.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any blame”.

Courtroom Details

The defendant had initially sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his town in the region to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was going out, the evidence indicated.

The ex-husband, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the hearing, informed the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “sedated” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.”

The courtroom became a central issue for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to assert he was not guilty and had not committed rape, stating that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the room, his behavior had been permissible.

The jury in the higher court was presented with video evidence of the victim's limp body, comatose and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation multiple times over a timeframe of what authorities reported was several hours. The presiding judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by choking. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unaware and had not given permission.

Defendant's Statements

The defendant informed the court the recordings were simply “sexual encounters” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the house, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” the accused stated to the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to harm that woman.”

Survivor's Statement

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by onlookers gathered to support her, addressed Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It’s a crime to assault an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you agreement? Not once.”

The victim, 72, became an global icon after she gave up her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

State's Argument

The prosecutor, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's refusal to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. The public is maybe in the process of that, perhaps driven by the societal understanding spurred by the publication of your case.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of non-guilt showed how societal tolerance was still common in society as part of “archaic” forms of “male domination”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor addressed Dogan: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole unpleasant social system that you are endorsing.”

Biographical Details

The accused was originated from Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his father was aggressive and that the defendant began smoking cannabis at the age of ten. When he was seventeen he was stopped by police for drug trafficking and his father forced him to leave of home. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of living on the streets.

He was wed and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had regular extramarital activities beyond their union. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. The defendant had stated to a evaluator that annually he sought commercial sex on his special day. His legal representatives informed the court he had a medical condition caused by the stress of the first trial.