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A defendant was declared guilty on higher court review of raping Gisele Pelicot after she was sedated by her husband – and was given his jail term extended to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

Husamettin Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a appeal hearing this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

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 Dogan, a married father, connected with the victim's then husband, the husband, in an internet forum named “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was recruiting men to visit his house to assault his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a unconscious state.

We expect the jury will declare that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that permission is individual, not transferred,” said the victim's attorney, her legal representative. “Permission is secured personally and not via a representative from a husband.”

Case History

Dominique Pelicot, one of the worst sexual predators in recent French history, was handed a sentence to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his then wife and inviting dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to challenge his conviction. He was originally sentenced to nine years in prison, a penalty enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any responsibility”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his village in Provence to assault the victim, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was transported from segregation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the retrial, told the court that the accused had known his wife had been “sedated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve sedated her without her knowledge.”

The proceedings became a focus point for a larger conversation on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to claim he was innocent and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because the victim's husband had invited him into the bedroom, his actions had been justifiable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed recorded footage of the victim's limp body, unconscious and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation multiple times over a period of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at risk of death by suffocation. The state's case said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan stated to the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not assault. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him to the house, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan informed the court. “I proceeded because he persuaded me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to injure that lady.”

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon departing the trial each day by crowds assembled to stand with her, told the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It’s a crime to rape an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you agreement? At no time.”

The victim, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she relinquished her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s failure to take accountability showed that: “The shame remains. The public is maybe in the course of that, perhaps propelled by the collective awareness spurred by the publication of your situation.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of non-guilt showed how rape culture was still prevalent in society as part of “outdated” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

Sie said to Dogan: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole sordid societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 came to the nation of France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his father was violent and that Dogan began consuming marijuana at the age of ten. When he was 17 he was stopped by police for selling narcotics and his father forced him to leave the residence. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his twenties and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a child with special needs, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had frequent sexual encounters beyond their marriage. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had told a mental health expert that once a year he engaged in paid sex on his birthday. His legal representatives informed the court he had a medical condition resulting from the anxiety of the initial proceedings.