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A defendant was declared guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot after she was sedated by her spouse – and received his prison sentence extended to ten years.

Appeal Trial

Husamettin Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a appeal hearing this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A panel of nine jurors, joined by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her residence in the south of France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that Dogan, a married father, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s then husband, the husband, in an online chatroom named “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was looking for men to come to his home to assault his wife after he had sedated her into a deep sleep.

“We hope the court will say loud and clear that in this society, human rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is individual, not given by another,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, her legal representative. “Permission is received personally and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Context

The husband, among the most severe sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to 20 years in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and soliciting 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.

Numerous other individuals were found convicted in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to appeal against his sentence. He was first given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to ten years.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any accountability”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his town in Provence to rape the victim, after notifying his wife he was going out, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the retrial, told the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “drugged” 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 knowledge.”

The proceedings became a key topic for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to say he was innocent and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the residence, his behavior had been permissible.

The panel in the higher court was displayed visual proof of the victim's unresponsive form, unconscious and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator committed rape on several occasions over a period of what police said was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state's case said there was no doubt that she had been unaware and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant informed the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and denied it was rape. 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 invited him to the home, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I attempted to cease,” the accused told the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to harm that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon leaving court each day by onlookers gathered to support her, said to the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you raped me? It is unlawful to rape an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you agreement? Never.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she gave up her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

State's Argument

The prosecutor, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s failure to take blame showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. Society is maybe in the midst of that, maybe motivated by the collective awareness spurred by the revelation of your ordeal.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

The prosecutor told Dogan: “While you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a person, it’s an complete disturbing cultural framework that you are upholding.”

Personal History

The accused was originated from Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to France, where his parent 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 stopped by authorities for dealing drugs and his father forced him to leave the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of living on the streets.

He was wed and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had frequent extramarital activities outside their union. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had stated to a mental health expert that annually he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His lawyers stated to the court he had joint inflammation caused by the anxiety of the first trial.