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An individual has been found guilty on retrial of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and received his incarceration period raised to a decade.

Appeal Trial

Husamettin Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a new trial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her residence in southern France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a family man, connected with the victim's then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom titled “without her consent”, where the husband was looking for men to enter his residence to assault his wife after he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

We expect the panel will say loud and clear that in this society, human rights are also rights of women – that consent is personal, not delegated,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Permission is secured personally and not through someone else from a husband.”

Background

The ex-husband, a notorious sex offenders in recent French history, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and bringing in numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the community of Mazan over a duration of many years of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found convicted in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to contest his sentence. He was originally handed a term to 9 years in prison, a sentence enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any responsibility”.

Courtroom Details

The defendant had initially sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his town in Provence to rape the victim, after informing his wife he was going out, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily give evidence at the hearing, informed the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “sedated” and he said to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her unbeknownst to her.”

The trial became a focus point for a broader debate on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to say he was innocent and had not committed rape, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the room, his behavior had been justifiable.

The panel in the higher court was shown video evidence of the victim's limp body, comatose and snoring in a deep sleep, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault repeatedly over a timeframe of what investigators stated was 3.5 hours. The judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by suffocation. The prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unaware and had not agreed.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan stated to the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the residence, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I tried to halt,” Dogan informed the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to injure that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

The victim, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters gathered to support her, said to Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you assaulted me? It is unlawful to assault an unaware woman. How could I have give you consent? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an symbol of resistance after she gave up her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The public is perhaps in the process of that, perhaps driven by the societal understanding brought by the revelation of your situation.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “It is imperative to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

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

Defendant's Background

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of five moved to France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The testimony revealed that his parent was violent and that the defendant began using drugs at the age of ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for drug trafficking and his father forced him to leave the family house. He served time in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a son with a genetic condition, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had frequent intimate relations beyond their union. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. Dogan had stated to a mental health expert that annually he engaged in transactional encounters on his birthday. His lawyers stated to the court he had a medical condition caused by the anxiety of the initial proceedings.