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A defendant has been found guilty on retrial of raping Gisele Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her then-husband – and has had his jail term raised to ten years.

Appeal Trial

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a appeal hearing this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A jury of five men and four women, joined by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her bedroom in Provence in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a married father, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform named “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was looking for men to come to his home to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a deep sleep.

We trust the panel will say loud and clear that in this society, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that permission is individual, not transferred,” declared the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Consent is received directly and not by proxy from a husband.”

Background

Dominique Pelicot, one of the worst sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for drugging his then wife and inviting dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the community of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to contest his sentence. He was originally sentenced 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 blame”.

Courtroom Details

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his town in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to briefly give evidence at the retrial, told the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “sedated” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to assault my wife after I’ve sedated her unbeknownst to her.”

The proceedings became a central issue for a broader debate 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 invited him into the residence, his actions had been permissible.

The panel in the higher court was displayed recorded footage of the victim's limp body, comatose and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault multiple times over a duration of what police said was 3.5 hours. The judge said she had been at peril of death by asphyxiation. The prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unaware and had not given permission.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant stated to the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” 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 house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I tried to halt,” Dogan stated to the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to harm that individual.”

Survivor's Statement

The survivor, who was cheered upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers assembled to stand with her, said to the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When are you going to recognise you assaulted me? It’s a crime to rape an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you agreement? Not once.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an global icon after she gave up 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 failure to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The public is maybe in the midst of that, perhaps driven by the public consciousness spurred by the revelation of your case.”

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 culture of consent.”

Sie said to Dogan: “While you deny it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole disturbing societal structure that you are upholding.”

Personal History

Dogan was originated from Turkey and at the age of five moved to France, where his father worked as a building manager. The court heard that his parent was violent and that Dogan began smoking cannabis aged 10. When Dogan was 17 he was caught by police for selling narcotics and his father evicted him the residence. He served time in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a construction worker but had faced periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a child with special needs, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had regular sexual encounters beyond their union. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had told a mental health expert that once a year he engaged in transactional encounters on his special day. His lawyers informed the court he had a medical condition resulting from the stress of the initial proceedings.