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A defendant was declared guilty on higher court review of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her husband – and has had his jail term raised to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

Husamettin Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his first conviction last year, experienced a new trial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A panel of four women and five men, accompanied by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her home in Provence in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The testimony revealed that the accused, a family man, made contact with the victim's husband at the time, the husband, in an digital platform named “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was seeking men to visit his house to rape his wife once he had drugged her into a deep sleep.

We trust the panel will say loud and clear that in this nation, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that agreement is personal, not delegated,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, her legal representative. “Permission is secured directly and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Background

Dominique Pelicot, among the most severe sex offenders in modern French history, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for drugging his then wife and bringing in numerous individuals to sexually assault her in her home in the town of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their union.

Fifty other men were found culpable in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to contest his verdict. He was originally sentenced to nine years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any accountability”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his village in Provence to assault the victim, after informing his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was transported from isolation in prison to briefly testify at the hearing, told the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to assault my wife after I’ve sedated her without her knowledge.”

The courtroom became a central issue for a broader debate on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to assert he was not guilty and had not committed rape, contending that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the room, his behavior had been justifiable.

The panel in the higher court was shown visual proof of the victim's limp body, comatose and snoring in a deep sleep, while a smiling Dogan committed rape on several occasions over a timeframe of what investigators stated was several hours. The court official said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by choking. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not consented.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant stated to the court the footage were simply “intimate moments” and disputed it was assault. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not assault. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” the accused told the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to hurt that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

The victim, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by onlookers gathered to stand with her, told the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you admit you assaulted me? It’s a crime to assault an incapacitated 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 confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

State's Argument

The prosecutor, speaking to the victim in court, said the defendant's refusal to take accountability showed that: “The shame remains. Society is possibly in the course of that, maybe driven by the collective awareness brought by the revelation of your case.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of non-guilt showed how rape culture was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

Sie told the defendant: “While you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire sordid societal structure that you are upholding.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five moved to France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The court heard that his father was aggressive and that the defendant began consuming marijuana aged ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was apprehended by authorities for dealing drugs and his parent forced him to leave of home. He spent time in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had undergone periods of living on the streets.

He was married and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had frequent sexual encounters beyond their marriage. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. The defendant had stated to a court psychologist that once a year he engaged in commercial sex on his birthday. His attorneys told the court he had joint inflammation triggered by the stress of the first trial.