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A man was declared guilty on appeal of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was sedated by her spouse – and received his jail term raised to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had contested his first conviction last year, experienced a new trial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

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

The evidence showed that the accused, a married father, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform called “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was seeking men to enter his residence to rape his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

“We hope the court will declare that in this society, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that permission is individual, not delegated,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, her legal representative. “Permission is obtained personally and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Context

Dominique Pelicot, one of the worst sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was handed a sentence to 20 years in prison last year for drugging his then wife and soliciting numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a period of many years of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to contest his conviction. He was originally handed a term to nine years in prison, a penalty enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any responsibility”.

Testimony and Proof

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

The ex-husband, who was transported from isolation in prison to briefly give evidence at the retrial, stated to the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “sedated” and he said to men by phone: “I seek someone to assault my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”

The courtroom became a focus point for a broader debate on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to say he was innocent and had not perpetrated assault, stating that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the residence, his conduct had been permissible.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was shown recorded footage of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, unconscious and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation multiple times over a period of what police said was several 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 incapacitated and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan told the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was violation. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He stated the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the home, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” the accused informed the court. “I continued because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to hurt that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters gathered to support her, addressed Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When will you admit you raped me? It’s a crime to assault an unaware woman. How could I have give you consent? Never.”

The victim, 72, became an international feminist hero after she waived her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

State's Argument

Sie, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's failure to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The public is possibly in the process of that, possibly driven by the public consciousness resulting from the exposure of your situation.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of non-guilt 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 society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor told Dogan: “For as much as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an complete disturbing cultural framework that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The testimony revealed that his father was violent and that Dogan began using drugs aged ten. When he was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for dealing drugs and his parent kicked him out of home. He was incarcerated in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had experienced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had frequent sexual encounters beyond their union. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had informed a evaluator that once a year he sought transactional encounters on his special day. His attorneys told the court he had joint inflammation caused by the anxiety of the original case.