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A man has been found guilty on appeal of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious 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 first conviction last year, faced a retrial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her bedroom in Provence in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a married father, connected with the victim's then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform titled “without her consent”, where the husband was seeking men to enter his residence to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

“We hope the panel will say loud and clear that in this society, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that agreement is individual, not delegated,” declared the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is received personally and not through someone else from a husband.”

Context

The husband, a notorious sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for incapacitating his wife at the time and inviting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the community of Mazan over a span of many years of their marriage.

Numerous other individuals were found culpable in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to contest his verdict. He was first sentenced to 9 years in prison, a punishment raised on Thursday to a decade.

The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any accountability”.

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had initially sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his residence in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily testify at the hearing, informed the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “sedated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to assault my wife after I’ve sedated her without her knowledge.”

The courtroom became a key topic for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to say he was blameless and had not engaged in violation, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the room, his behavior had been permissible.

The panel in the higher court was presented with visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, unconscious and snoring in a comatose state, while a smiling Dogan performed assault multiple times over a period of what police said was 3.5 hours. The presiding judge said she had been at danger of death by suffocation. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan told the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was violation. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I tried to halt,” Dogan informed the court. “I continued because he convinced me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to harm that individual.”

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon departing the trial each day by supporters present to back her, said to the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It is unlawful to assault an unaware woman. How could I have give you permission? Never.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she gave up her right to confidentiality 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 refusal to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is perhaps in the process of that, perhaps motivated by the collective awareness brought by the exposure of your situation.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

The prosecutor addressed the defendant: “As long as you reject it, it’s not just a person, it’s an entire unpleasant social system that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was originated from Turkey and at the age of five moved to France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The court heard that his parent was aggressive and that Dogan began smoking cannabis aged ten. When he was 17 he was caught by authorities for selling narcotics and his father forced him to leave the residence. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a builder 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 educational cafeteria. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had regular sexual encounters outside their marriage. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his stressful life. Dogan had informed a court psychologist that once a year he looked for transactional encounters on his birthday. His lawyers stated to the court he had a medical condition caused by the anxiety of the first trial.