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A defendant was declared guilty on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was sedated by her then-husband – and was given his prison sentence extended to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had contested his first conviction last year, faced a retrial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of nine jurors, joined by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her bedroom in the south of France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a married father, made contact with the victim's spouse, the husband, in an digital platform called “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to visit his house to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a deep sleep.

“We hope the panel will affirm that in this nation, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that permission is personal, not given by another,” declared the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is received directly and not via a representative from a husband.”

Background

The husband, one of the worst sex offenders in modern French history, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his then wife and inviting dozens of men to rape her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a span of many years of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to appeal against his conviction. He was initially sentenced to nine years in prison, a sentence raised on Thursday to a decade.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve twelve years, because he “completely denies to take any responsibility”.

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then traveled an hour from his town in the region to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was leaving, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was transported from isolation in prison to briefly give evidence at the appeal trial, told the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to assault my wife after I’ve put her to sleep unbeknownst to her.”

The courtroom became a focus point for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to assert he was blameless and had not committed rape, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the residence, his behavior had been acceptable.

The panel in the higher court was presented with visual proof of the victim's unconscious figure, sedated and snoring in a deep sleep, while a smiling Dogan performed assault multiple times over a duration of what police said was 3.5 hours. The presiding judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state's case said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant told the court the recordings were simply “sex scenes” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the home, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused stated to the court. “I carried on because he reassured me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to injure that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

The victim, who was cheered upon leaving court each day by onlookers assembled to stand with her, told the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is illegal to assault an unconscious woman. When did I ever give you permission? At no time.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an global icon after she gave up her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, speaking to the victim in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is maybe in the midst of that, maybe propelled by the societal understanding spurred by the exposure of your situation.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “male domination”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor told the defendant: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an complete disturbing societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Biographical Details

The accused was originated from the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to the nation of France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The court heard that his father was violent and that the defendant began smoking cannabis at the age of 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was apprehended by authorities for drug trafficking and his father evicted him the family house. He served time in prison for trafficking in his early 20s and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had frequent intimate relations beyond their marriage. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. Dogan had stated to a court psychologist that each year he looked for transactional encounters on his special day. His attorneys told the court he had arthritis triggered by the pressure of the first trial.