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A defendant has been found guilty on higher court review of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her husband – and received his incarceration period extended to ten years.

Appeal Trial

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a new trial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

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

The evidence showed that Dogan, a married father, reached out to the victim's then husband, the husband, in an online chatroom named “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to come to his home to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a unconscious state.

We trust the jury will say loud and clear that in this nation, human rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is individual, not delegated,” declared the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is received personally and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Background

The husband, among the most severe sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was handed a sentence to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and bringing in multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a duration of many years of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to challenge his verdict. He was first handed a term to nine years in prison, a penalty enhanced on Thursday to 10 years.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any blame”.

Courtroom Details

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then driven an hour from his town in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was leaving, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the appeal trial, stated to the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “incapacitated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to violate my wife after I’ve sedated her unbeknownst to her.”

The courtroom became a central issue for a broader debate on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to say he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because the victim's husband had invited him into the room, his conduct had been acceptable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed recorded footage of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, sedated and snoring in a deep sleep, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation repeatedly over a duration of what investigators stated was three and a half hours. The judge said she had been at risk of death by asphyxiation. The state's case said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed.

Defendant's Statements

The defendant informed the court the videos were simply “sex scenes” and denied it was rape. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was OK. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused stated to the court. “I proceeded because he reassured me.”

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

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by crowds gathered to back her, addressed the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you acknowledge you raped me? It’s a crime to rape an unconscious woman. How could I have give you agreement? At no time.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she relinquished her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's refusal to take accountability showed that: “The shame remains. The community is possibly in the course of that, perhaps motivated by the societal understanding spurred by the revelation of your ordeal.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how normalized violence was still common in society as part of “outdated” forms of “male domination”. He said: “Now we must 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 complete unpleasant social system that you are upholding.”

Personal History

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of France, where his father worked as a concierge. The testimony revealed that his father was abusive and that the defendant began using drugs at the age of 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was apprehended by authorities for drug trafficking and his parent kicked him out the family house. 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 principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had repeated intimate relations outside their union. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had informed a court psychologist that once a year he looked for paid sex on his special day. His legal representatives informed the court he had a medical condition caused by the pressure of the initial proceedings.