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A man has been found guilty on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot after she was sedated by her then-husband – and was given his jail term raised to a decade.

Appeal Trial

Husamettin Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a retrial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A jury of five men and four women, joined by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her residence in Provence in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a family man, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, the husband, in an internet forum named “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to come to his home to rape his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

We trust the court will say loud and clear that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that permission is personal, not delegated,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Consent is received personally and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Background

The ex-husband, one of the worst sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for drugging his wife at the time and bringing in multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a period of almost a decade of their marriage.

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

The chief prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any accountability”.

Testimony and Proof

Dogan had first sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his village in the region to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was leaving, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily testify at the retrial, informed the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated 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 wider discussion on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to assert he was innocent and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the room, his conduct had been justifiable.

The panel in the higher court was presented with recorded footage of Gisèle Pelicot’s unresponsive form, unconscious and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation on several occasions over a duration of what authorities reported was 3.5 hours. The judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by choking. The prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant told the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. 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 acceptable. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “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, Dogan said: “I never wanted to hurt that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds present to support her, told Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you assaulted me? It is illegal to assault an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you permission? Never.”

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

State's Argument

The prosecutor, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. The public is maybe in the process of that, perhaps propelled by the public consciousness brought by the revelation of your case.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how rape culture was still common in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

Sie addressed Dogan: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire disturbing societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Personal History

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 came to France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his father was aggressive and that the defendant began using drugs aged ten. When he was 17 he was stopped by authorities for selling narcotics and his parent evicted him the residence. He spent time in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had repeated extramarital activities beyond their marriage. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. The defendant had informed a court psychologist that once a year he looked for paid sex on his special day. His lawyers told the court he had joint inflammation caused by the anxiety of the initial proceedings.