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A man has been found guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and was given his jail term increased to ten years.

Higher Court Case

Husamettin Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a retrial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of nine jurors, accompanied by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her residence in Provence in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a married father, connected with the victim's spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform called “without her consent”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to come to his home to rape his wife after he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

We expect the panel will declare that in this society, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is personal, not transferred,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, her legal representative. “Agreement is obtained directly and not by proxy from a husband.”

Context

The husband, one of the worst sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and bringing in multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a period of many years of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found convicted in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to appeal against his conviction. He was first sentenced to nine years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to ten years.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any responsibility”.

Courtroom Details

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then traveled an hour from his town in the region to rape the victim, after telling his wife he was stepping out, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the appeal trial, stated to the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her without her knowledge.”

The trial became a central issue for a larger conversation on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to assert he was innocent and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because the victim's husband had invited him into the residence, his actions had been acceptable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was shown video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, comatose and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a smiling Dogan committed rape on several occasions over a period of what police said was several hours. The judge said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state's case said there was absolute certainty that she had been incapacitated and had not consented.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan told the court the videos were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was rape. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. He told the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” Dogan informed the court. “I proceeded because he reassured me.”

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

Pelicot's Words

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds gathered to support her, told Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you raped me? It is illegal to assault an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you agreement? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an international feminist hero after she gave up her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

The prosecutor, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's refusal to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is possibly in the midst of that, perhaps motivated by the societal understanding resulting from the revelation of your situation.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how rape culture was still widespread in society as part of “archaic” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

Sie addressed Dogan: “While you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole unpleasant cultural framework that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five relocated to France, where his father worked as a building manager. The testimony revealed that his father was violent and that the defendant began using drugs aged ten. When he was 17 he was caught by authorities for dealing drugs and his father forced him to leave the residence. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a laborer but had faced periods of living on the streets.

He was wed and had a child with special needs, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had regular extramarital activities beyond their union. His defence said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. The defendant had informed a mental health expert that once a year he sought transactional encounters on his special day. His lawyers stated to the court he had joint inflammation triggered by the pressure of the first trial.