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An individual has been found guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was sedated by her husband – and received his incarceration period extended to a decade.

Appeal Trial

Husamettin Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a appeal hearing this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A panel of five men and four women, accompanied by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her home in the south of France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a married father, reached out to the victim's then husband, the husband, in an online chatroom named “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was seeking men to enter his residence to assault his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a deep sleep.

We trust the panel will affirm that in this nation, human rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is personal, not given by another,” stated the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is secured directly and not by proxy from a husband.”

Background

The ex-husband, one of the worst sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for drugging his then wife and inviting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the town of Mazan over a span of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to appeal against his sentence. He was initially sentenced to 9 years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to a decade.

The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any blame”.

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had first sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his town in the region to assault the victim, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was brought from segregation in prison to temporarily testify at the retrial, told the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “incapacitated” and he told to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to abuse my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her consent.”

The trial became a central issue for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to claim he was blameless and had not perpetrated assault, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the room, his conduct had been acceptable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, sedated and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation repeatedly over a period of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by suffocation. The prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant informed the court the recordings were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was assault. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not assault. He declared the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was OK. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan informed the court. “I proceeded because he convinced me.”

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

Pelicot's Words

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon leaving court each day by supporters gathered to stand with her, said to the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is unlawful to rape an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you agreement? At no time.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an symbol of resistance after she gave up her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take accountability showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The public is maybe in the midst of that, possibly motivated by the public consciousness resulting from the exposure of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

Sie told the defendant: “While you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole unpleasant societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 came to France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his parent was aggressive and that Dogan began using drugs at the age of ten. When he was 17 he was stopped by authorities for selling narcotics and his father evicted him the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had repeated intimate relations outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had told a evaluator that annually he sought commercial sex on his special day. His lawyers informed the court he had arthritis triggered by the anxiety of the initial proceedings.