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A defendant was declared guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and received his incarceration period increased to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

Husamettin Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had contested his first conviction last year, underwent a retrial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of four women and five men, joined by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her home in Provence in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The testimony revealed that the accused, a family man, made contact with the victim's husband at the time, the husband, in an digital platform titled “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was recruiting men to visit his house to assault his wife once he had drugged her into a comatose state.

We trust the panel will say loud and clear that in this nation, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that permission is personal, not given by another,” stated the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Consent is obtained directly and not via a representative from a husband.”

Background

The husband, a notorious sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and inviting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the town of Mazan over a duration of many years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found convicted in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to appeal against his conviction. He was originally sentenced to nine years in prison, a sentence increased on Thursday to 10 years.

The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any responsibility”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had initially sent the husband graphic images and then traveled an hour from his town in the region to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the retrial, told the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “drugged” and he told to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The trial became a key topic for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to claim he was blameless and had not committed rape, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the bedroom, his conduct had been acceptable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, sedated and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a smiling Dogan engaged in violation repeatedly over a timeframe of what police said was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by choking. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan told the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and denied it was rape. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. He stated the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” the accused informed the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”

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

Survivor's Statement

Gisèle Pelicot, who was applauded upon leaving court each day by crowds gathered to support her, said to the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It is illegal to assault an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you consent? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an global icon after she waived her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s failure to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is maybe in the process of that, maybe driven by the societal understanding brought by the publication of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “outdated” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “It is imperative to change rape culture to a culture of consent.”

Sie told Dogan: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole disturbing societal structure that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 came to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The court heard that his parent was violent and that the defendant began using drugs aged 10. When he was seventeen he was apprehended by police for selling narcotics and his parent forced him to leave the residence. He served time in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of living on the streets.

He was wed and had a son with special needs, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a educational cafeteria. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had frequent intimate relations 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 looked for transactional encounters on his birthday. His lawyers told the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the anxiety of the initial proceedings.