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A man was convicted on retrial of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her spouse – and was given his jail term extended to ten years.

Retrial Proceedings

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had contested his first conviction last year, experienced a appeal hearing this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A panel of nine jurors, joined by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her home in southern France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a married father, reached out to the victim's then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform named “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to enter his residence to rape his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

We expect the panel will declare that in this nation, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that consent is personal, not transferred,” declared the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Consent is received directly and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Context

The ex-husband, a notorious sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and inviting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the community of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their union.

Fifty other men were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to appeal against his verdict. He was first handed a term to nine years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to 10 years.

The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any responsibility”.

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his town in the region to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was stepping out, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was transported from segregation in prison to briefly give evidence at the hearing, told the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “drugged” and he told to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to abuse my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.”

The courtroom became a focus point for a wider discussion on sexual violence norms in society as the defendant continued to say he was innocent and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the room, his behavior had been acceptable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, unconscious and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator committed rape on several occasions over a period of what authorities reported was 3.5 hours. The presiding judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by choking. The state's case said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Defendant's Statements

The defendant informed the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was violation. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the residence, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan told the court. “I continued because he reassured me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to hurt that lady.”

Survivor's Statement

The survivor, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers present to stand with her, told Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It’s a crime to rape an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you consent? Not once.”

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

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. The public is possibly in the process of that, possibly motivated by the public consciousness brought by the exposure of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still common in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

Sie told Dogan: “While you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole unpleasant cultural framework that you are upholding.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 came to the nation of France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his father was abusive and that the defendant began using drugs at the age of ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was apprehended by police for dealing drugs and his parent kicked him out the residence. He served time in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a construction worker but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his spouse did not know he had frequent intimate relations beyond their marriage. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had informed a evaluator that once a year he engaged in transactional encounters on his special day. His lawyers stated to the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the anxiety of the first trial.