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A defendant has been found guilty on appeal of raping Gisele Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her husband – and received his jail term increased to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

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

A panel of four women and five men, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping the victim in her home in the south of France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that Dogan, a married father, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, the husband, in an digital platform titled “without her knowledge”, where the husband was looking for men to come to his home to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a unconscious state.

We trust the panel will say loud and clear that in this society, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that agreement is personal, not delegated,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is received personally and not via a representative from a husband.”

Background

Dominique Pelicot, one of the worst sex offenders in recent French history, was given a prison term to 20 years in prison last year for incapacitating his then wife and soliciting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a duration of almost a decade of their union.

Fifty other men were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to contest his conviction. He was initially sentenced to 9 years in prison, a punishment enhanced on Thursday to ten years.

The chief prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any blame”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had first sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his town in the region to rape the victim, after informing his wife he was leaving, the evidence indicated.

The ex-husband, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to briefly testify at the hearing, informed the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “sedated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to abuse my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her consent.”

The proceedings became a central issue for a broader debate on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to assert he was not guilty and had not engaged in violation, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the residence, his conduct had been justifiable.

The panel in the higher court was shown video evidence of the victim's limp body, comatose and snoring in a deep sleep, while a grinning the perpetrator committed rape repeatedly over a duration of what authorities reported was 3.5 hours. The judge said she had been at danger of death by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unaware and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan told the court the footage were simply “intimate moments” and disputed it was violation. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused told the court. “I continued because he reassured me.”

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

Victim's Response

The survivor, who was cheered upon leaving court each day by crowds gathered to support her, addressed Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It’s a crime to assault an unconscious woman. When did I ever give you agreement? At no time.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she relinquished her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, addressing the victim in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. Society is maybe in the course of that, maybe motivated by the public consciousness brought by the exposure of your case.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how societal tolerance was still common 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.”

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

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his parent was abusive and that the defendant began using drugs at the age of ten. When he was seventeen he was caught by police for dealing drugs and his father kicked him out the residence. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his early 20s and had worked as a construction worker but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The court heard his wife did not know he had repeated intimate relations outside their union. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. Dogan had told a mental health expert that each year he looked for commercial sex on his birthday. His lawyers stated to the court he had arthritis resulting from the stress of the original case.