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An individual was convicted on retrial of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and has had his jail term raised to ten years.

Appeal Trial

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

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

The evidence showed that Dogan, a family man, connected with the victim's husband at the time, the husband, in an online chatroom titled “without her consent”, where the husband was recruiting men to enter his residence to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a deep sleep.

We trust the jury will declare that in this society, human rights are also women’s rights – that permission is individual, not transferred,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, her legal representative. “Permission is obtained personally and not via a representative from a husband.”

Background

The ex-husband, among the most severe sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and bringing in multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a duration of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to appeal against his conviction. He was initially given a sentence to nine years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to 10 years.

The chief prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any blame”.

Evidence Presented

Dogan had first sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his residence in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was going out, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the retrial, informed the court that the accused had known his wife had been “incapacitated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her consent.”

The proceedings became a focus point for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to say he was not guilty and had not committed rape, contending that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the bedroom, his actions had been permissible.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with visual proof of the victim's unresponsive form, unconscious and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator committed rape repeatedly over a period of what investigators stated was several hours. The presiding judge said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state's case said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant stated to the court the footage were simply “intimate moments” and disputed it was assault. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He stated the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the house, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused informed the court. “I continued because he convinced me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to harm that individual.”

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon leaving court each day by supporters gathered to back her, said to Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When are you going to recognise you violated me? It is unlawful to rape an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you permission? Never.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an global icon after she gave up her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

State's Argument

Sie, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is perhaps in the midst of that, possibly propelled by the collective awareness brought by the revelation of your case.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how rape culture was still prevalent in society as part of “archaic” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

Sie said to the defendant: “For as much as you reject it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole disturbing societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was originated from the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to the nation of France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The court heard that his parent was aggressive and that the defendant began using drugs at the age of 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for selling narcotics and his parent kicked him out the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a laborer but had undergone periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a educational cafeteria. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had regular intimate relations beyond their marriage. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had stated to a evaluator that each year he engaged in transactional encounters on his birthday. His legal representatives stated to the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the anxiety of the first trial.