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A defendant was convicted on appeal of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was sedated by her spouse – and was given his incarceration period increased to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

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

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

The court heard that the accused, a family man, made contact with the victim's then husband, the husband, in an online chatroom called “without her consent”, where the husband was seeking men to enter his residence to assault his wife after he had drugged her into a deep sleep.

“We hope the court will say loud and clear that in this country, human rights are also rights of women – that consent is personal, not given by another,” declared the victim's attorney, her legal representative. “Consent is secured directly and not by proxy from a husband.”

Context

The husband, a notorious sexual predators in modern French history, was given a prison term to 20 years in prison last year for drugging his then wife and soliciting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the community of Mazan over a span of many years of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found convicted in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to contest his verdict. He was first handed a term to nine years in prison, a punishment enhanced on Thursday to 10 years.

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

Evidence Presented

Dogan had first sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his village in Provence to assault the victim, after notifying his wife he was going out, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the appeal trial, informed the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her consent.”

The proceedings became a key topic for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to say he was not guilty and had not committed rape, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the residence, his behavior had been permissible.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed recorded footage of the victim's unresponsive form, unconscious and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning Dogan performed assault multiple times over a duration of what police said was several hours. The presiding judge said she had been at risk of death by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan told the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was rape. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not assault. He stated the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused informed the court. “I carried on because he reassured me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to harm that lady.”

Victim's Response

The survivor, who was cheered upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds assembled to back her, said to Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you violated me? It is illegal to rape an unconscious woman. How could I have give you consent? Never.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an global icon after she relinquished her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

State's Argument

Sie, speaking to the victim in court, said the defendant's failure to take responsibility showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The public is perhaps in the process of that, perhaps propelled by the societal understanding resulting from the exposure of your ordeal.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how rape culture was still prevalent in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

Sie told the defendant: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire sordid societal structure that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 came to France, where his father worked as a concierge. The testimony revealed that his father was aggressive and that the defendant began smoking cannabis aged ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for selling narcotics and his father forced him to leave of home. He served time in prison for narcotics offenses in his twenties and had worked as a builder but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a son with a genetic condition, who he was the primary guardian for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had frequent sexual encounters outside their union. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his stressful life. The defendant had stated to a mental health expert that annually he sought commercial sex on his birthday. His legal representatives informed the court he had arthritis caused by the pressure of the original case.