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An individual was declared guilty on appeal of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband – and was given his prison sentence extended to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

Husamettin Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his first conviction last year, underwent a retrial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A panel of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her bedroom in southern France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that Dogan, a family man, connected with the victim's spouse, the husband, in an digital platform named “without her consent”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to enter his residence to assault his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

We expect the jury will declare that in this country, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that permission is individual, not transferred,” said the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is obtained personally and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Context

Dominique Pelicot, among the most severe sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to two decades in prison last year for drugging his wife at the time and inviting numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a period of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to challenge his conviction. He was first given a sentence to nine years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to 10 years.

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

Courtroom Details

The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then traveled an hour from his residence in Provence to rape the victim, after notifying his wife he was leaving, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was brought from isolation in prison to briefly testify at the appeal trial, informed the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to abuse my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.”

The proceedings became a focus point for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to claim he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had welcomed him into the room, his actions had been permissible.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with visual proof of the victim's unconscious figure, unconscious and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation repeatedly over a period of what investigators stated was several hours. The presiding judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state's case said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Defendant's Statements

The defendant informed the court the footage were simply “sexual encounters” and denied it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the residence, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan stated to the court. “I proceeded because he convinced me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to injure that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

Gisèle Pelicot, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers assembled to support her, told Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It is illegal to assault an unconscious woman. When did I ever give you consent? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an global icon after she relinquished her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

State's Argument

The prosecutor, addressing the victim in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take accountability showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The public is maybe in the process of that, perhaps propelled by the public consciousness resulting from the revelation of your ordeal.”

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

The prosecutor told the defendant: “For as much as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole sordid societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was originated from the country of Turkey and at the age of five moved to France, where his father worked as a concierge. The testimony revealed that his parent was aggressive and that Dogan began smoking cannabis at the age of ten. When Dogan was 17 he was stopped by authorities for dealing drugs and his father evicted him the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had regular extramarital activities outside their union. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his stressful life. Dogan had told a court psychologist that each year he sought transactional encounters on his special day. His legal representatives informed the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the anxiety of the initial proceedings.