🔗 Share this article

A man was convicted on retrial of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her spouse – and was given his prison sentence extended to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a appeal hearing this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

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

The evidence showed that Dogan, a family man, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, the husband, in an online chatroom titled “without her consent”, where the husband was recruiting men to enter his residence to assault his wife after he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

“We hope the jury will affirm that in this country, human rights are also rights of women – that agreement is individual, not transferred,” stated the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is received personally and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Context

The husband, among the most severe sexual predators in recent French history, was given a prison term to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and soliciting dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the community of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found culpable in a notable trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to contest his conviction. He was initially handed a term to 9 years in prison, a punishment raised on Thursday to ten years.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any responsibility”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then traveled an hour from his residence in the region 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 provide testimony at the hearing, told the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to assault my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The courtroom became a central issue for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to claim he was blameless and had not engaged in violation, stating that because the victim's husband had invited him into the bedroom, his behavior had been justifiable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown video evidence of the victim's unresponsive form, unconscious and snoring in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault multiple times over a timeframe of what investigators stated was three and a half hours. The judge said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan stated to the court the recordings were simply “sex scenes” and denied it was violation. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He told the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the home, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I attempted to cease,” the accused told the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to injure that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

The victim, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters present to back her, addressed Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you raped me? It is illegal to rape an unaware woman. At what point did I give you permission? Not once.”

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

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's refusal to take blame showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The community is perhaps in the course of that, possibly driven by the societal understanding spurred by the publication of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how rape culture was still prevalent in society as part of “outdated” forms of “male domination”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

Sie told Dogan: “While you reject it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire disturbing cultural framework that you are supporting.”

Personal History

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his father was violent and that the defendant began using drugs at the age of ten. When he was seventeen he was caught by police for selling narcotics and his father evicted him the residence. He spent time in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had experienced periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a son 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 wife did not know he had regular intimate relations outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had told a court psychologist that annually he looked for commercial sex on his special day. His attorneys told the court he had a medical condition triggered by the anxiety of the original case.