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A defendant was convicted on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her spouse – and has had his jail term increased to a decade.

Appeal Trial

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

A jury of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her bedroom in southern France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The testimony revealed that the accused, a family man, reached out to the victim's husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum titled “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was seeking men to enter his residence to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

“We hope the jury will declare that in this society, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that consent is personal, not transferred,” said the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Consent is received directly and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Background

Dominique Pelicot, a notorious sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for drugging his wife at the time and bringing in dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a span of many years of their union.

Fifty other men were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to challenge his sentence. He was initially given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to a decade.

The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any accountability”.

Evidence Presented

Dogan had first sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his village in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was transported from segregation in prison to briefly provide testimony at the retrial, stated to the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “incapacitated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep unbeknownst to her.”

The courtroom became a focus point for a larger conversation on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to say he was innocent and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because the victim's husband had invited him into the residence, his actions had been permissible.

The panel in the higher court was shown video evidence of the victim's unconscious figure, unconscious and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a smiling the perpetrator engaged in violation repeatedly over a timeframe of what authorities reported was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by choking. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan informed the court the footage were simply “sexual encounters” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. He stated the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan told the court. “I continued because he convinced me.”

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

Pelicot's Words

The victim, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds gathered to back her, told the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you admit you assaulted me? It is illegal to assault an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you consent? Not once.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an global icon after she waived her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take accountability showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The community is maybe in the process of that, maybe driven by the societal understanding resulting from the exposure of your situation.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of non-guilt showed how rape culture was still prevalent in society as part of “outdated” forms of “male domination”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

Sie said to Dogan: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole sordid societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Biographical Details

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of five relocated to France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The testimony revealed that his parent was abusive and that Dogan began using drugs at the age of ten. When he was 17 he was stopped by police for dealing drugs and his father evicted him the residence. He spent time in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had undergone periods of living on the streets.

He was married and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife 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 strategy for managing with his challenging existence. Dogan had stated to a mental health expert that once a year he engaged in commercial sex on his special day. His lawyers informed the court he had arthritis caused by the pressure of the first trial.