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A man was convicted on higher court review of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband – and received his incarceration period increased to ten years.

Appeal Trial

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his first conviction last year, faced a new trial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A panel of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her residence in the south of France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a family man, connected with the victim's spouse, the husband, in an internet forum named “without her consent”, where Pelicot was seeking men to enter his residence to rape his wife after he had drugged her into a deep sleep.

“We hope the panel will declare that in this society, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that permission is personal, not transferred,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is obtained directly and not via a representative from a husband.”

Case History

The husband, one of the worst sex offenders in modern French history, was given a prison term to 20 years in prison last year for drugging his then wife and soliciting dozens of men to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their union.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to appeal against his sentence. He was originally handed a term to nine years in prison, a sentence increased on Thursday to ten years.

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

Testimony and Proof

Dogan had initially sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then driven an hour from his town in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was leaving, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the hearing, told the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I seek someone to assault my wife after I’ve sedated her unbeknownst to her.”

The proceedings became a central issue for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to say he was blameless and had not committed rape, arguing that because the victim's husband had invited him into the bedroom, his conduct had been permissible.

The jury in the higher court was presented with visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, comatose and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator committed rape multiple times over a timeframe of what authorities reported was 3.5 hours. The presiding judge said she had been at peril of death by choking. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan stated to the court the footage were simply “sexual encounters” and disputed it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” the accused told the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to injure that lady.”

Pelicot's Words

Gisèle Pelicot, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers assembled to back her, addressed Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It’s a crime to rape an incapacitated woman. How could I have give you consent? Not once.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she gave up her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s failure to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is maybe in the process of that, perhaps propelled by the public consciousness brought by the exposure of your situation.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

Sie told Dogan: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole sordid social system that you are upholding.”

Personal History

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five relocated to the nation of France, where his father worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his father was abusive and that the defendant began smoking cannabis at the age of 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was apprehended by authorities for drug trafficking and his parent evicted him the residence. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had regular extramarital activities outside their marriage. His defence said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. Dogan had told a mental health expert that annually he looked for commercial sex on his birthday. His legal representatives stated to the court he had arthritis triggered by the anxiety of the first trial.