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A man was declared guilty on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her husband – and received his incarceration period extended to a decade.

Appeal Trial

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

A jury of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her residence in the south of France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a family man, reached out to the victim's then husband, the husband, in an digital platform called “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was recruiting men to visit his house to assault his wife after he had drugged her into a comatose state.

We expect the jury will declare that in this country, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that consent is individual, not transferred,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, her legal representative. “Consent is received personally and not via a representative from a husband.”

Context

Dominique Pelicot, a notorious sex offenders in recent French history, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for drugging his spouse and inviting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to challenge his verdict. He was originally handed a term to nine years in prison, a punishment enhanced on Thursday to ten years.

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 initially sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his residence in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was transported from segregation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the retrial, stated to the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “incapacitated” and he told to men by phone: “I seek someone to violate my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious unbeknownst to her.”

The proceedings became a central issue for a larger conversation on sexual violence norms in society as the defendant continued to assert he was blameless and had not committed rape, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the bedroom, his conduct had been justifiable.

The panel in the higher court was displayed recorded footage of the victim's unresponsive form, unconscious and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a smiling the perpetrator performed assault repeatedly over a duration of what authorities reported was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at danger of death by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan stated to the court the recordings were simply “sexual encounters” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan told the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to hurt that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was applauded upon leaving court each day by crowds present to back her, addressed Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It is illegal to assault an unaware woman. When did I ever give you agreement? At no time.”

The victim, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she relinquished her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

State's Argument

Sie, turning to the victim in court, said the defendant's refusal to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. The community is maybe in the course of that, possibly motivated by the public consciousness resulting from the exposure of your situation.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “outdated” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

The prosecutor addressed the defendant: “As long as you reject it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole unpleasant cultural framework that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to the nation of France, where his father worked as a concierge. The testimony revealed that his parent was abusive and that Dogan began smoking cannabis at the age of 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was caught by police for selling narcotics and his parent kicked him out of home. He spent time in prison for drug dealing in his young adulthood and had worked as a builder but had experienced periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a son with a genetic condition, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The court heard his wife did not know he had repeated intimate relations outside their union. His defence said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. The defendant had stated to a evaluator that each year he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His attorneys told the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the pressure of the first trial.