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An individual has been found guilty on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot after she was sedated by her then-husband – and received his prison sentence extended to a decade.

Appeal Trial

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a appeal hearing this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A jury of five men and four women, joined by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping the victim in her bedroom in Provence in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a married father, made contact with the victim's husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom titled “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was looking for men to visit his house to rape his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a deep sleep.

We expect the panel will declare that in this society, human rights are also rights of women – that consent is personal, not transferred,” stated the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Consent is received directly and not through someone else from a husband.”

Context

Dominique Pelicot, one of the worst sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to two decades in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and inviting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the town of Mazan over a duration of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Numerous other individuals were found culpable in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to appeal against his sentence. He was initially handed a term to nine years in prison, a sentence raised on Thursday to a decade.

The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any blame”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his residence in Provence to rape the victim, after notifying his wife he was going out, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to briefly give evidence at the appeal trial, told the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “sedated” and he said to men by phone: “I seek someone to violate my wife after I’ve sedated her unbeknownst to her.”

The trial became a key topic for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to say he was blameless and had not committed rape, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the room, his conduct had been acceptable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, comatose and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation repeatedly over a timeframe of what police said was 3.5 hours. The judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by choking. The state's case said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant informed the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and denied it was violation. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He declared the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the home, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” the accused informed the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”

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

Victim's Response

The victim, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters assembled to back her, told the defendant 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 agreement? Never.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an international feminist hero after she gave up her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The public is maybe in the midst of that, maybe motivated by the societal understanding spurred by the publication of your situation.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how societal tolerance was still prevalent in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

Sie told Dogan: “While you reject it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire sordid societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five relocated to France, where his father worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his parent was abusive and that the defendant began consuming marijuana at the age of ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was caught by authorities for dealing drugs and his father kicked him out of home. He served time in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had repeated intimate relations outside their marriage. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had informed a mental health expert that once a year he looked for commercial sex on his special day. His legal representatives informed the court he had arthritis caused by the anxiety of the initial proceedings.