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A defendant has been found guilty on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her husband – and received his jail term extended to a decade.

Higher Court Case

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged 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, joined by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her residence in Provence in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a family man, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom called “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to come to his home to rape his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

“We hope the panel will say loud and clear that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that agreement is individual, not given by another,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is secured personally and not by proxy from a husband.”

Context

Dominique Pelicot, one of the worst sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his spouse and soliciting dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a period of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to contest his verdict. He was initially given a sentence to nine years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to 10 years.

The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any blame”.

Testimony and Proof

Dogan had first sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his town in Provence to assault the victim, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the appeal trial, stated to the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I seek someone to assault my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious unbeknownst to her.”

The trial became a central issue for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to claim he was blameless and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the bedroom, his conduct had been justifiable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was shown video evidence of the victim's unresponsive form, comatose and snoring in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation multiple times over a duration of what authorities reported was several hours. The presiding judge said she had been at danger of death by suffocation. The state's case said there was no doubt that she had been unaware and had not given permission.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan informed the court the videos were simply “sex scenes” and denied it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He declared the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan informed the court. “I continued because he reassured me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to harm that lady.”

Victim's Response

The victim, who was cheered upon departing the trial each day by onlookers assembled to stand with her, said to the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It is illegal to rape an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you consent? Not once.”

The victim, 72, became an global icon after she gave up her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, turning to the victim in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take blame showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. Society is perhaps in the midst of that, perhaps driven by the societal understanding spurred by the publication of your ordeal.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how societal tolerance was still common in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “male domination”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor addressed the defendant: “For as much as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a person, it’s an complete sordid societal structure that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his parent was violent and that Dogan began smoking cannabis aged 10. When Dogan was 17 he was caught by police for drug trafficking and his father kicked him out the family house. He spent time in prison for drug dealing in his young adulthood and had worked as a construction worker but had undergone periods of living on the streets.

He was wed and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the primary guardian for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had repeated intimate relations beyond their marriage. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his stressful life. The defendant had told a court psychologist that once a year he engaged in transactional encounters on his special day. His attorneys informed the court he had arthritis caused by the anxiety of the initial proceedings.