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An individual has been found guilty on higher court review of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and was given his jail term raised to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his first conviction last year, underwent a appeal hearing this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A panel of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping the victim in her bedroom in southern France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that Dogan, a family man, connected with the victim's then husband, the husband, in an internet forum named “without her consent”, where the husband was seeking men to enter his residence to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

“We hope the court will affirm that in this society, human rights are also rights of women – that agreement is personal, not given by another,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Consent is obtained personally and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Background

The ex-husband, among the most severe sexual predators in modern French history, was handed a sentence to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his then wife and soliciting dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the community of Mazan over a period of many years of their union.

Fifty other men were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to challenge his conviction. He was first handed a term to nine years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any accountability”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had initially sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his residence in Provence to assault the victim, after notifying his wife he was leaving, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was transported from segregation in prison to briefly testify at the appeal trial, informed the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to violate my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”

The trial became a key topic for a larger conversation on sexual violence norms in society as the defendant continued to say he was blameless and had not engaged in violation, stating that because the victim's husband had invited him into the residence, his behavior had been acceptable.

The panel in the higher court was shown visual proof of the victim's unresponsive form, unconscious and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a smiling Dogan performed assault repeatedly over a period of what investigators stated was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at peril of death by suffocation. The state's case said there was no doubt that she had been unaware and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant informed the court the recordings were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was violation. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, 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 the husband. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan informed the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

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

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers present to back her, addressed Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you violated me? It’s a crime to rape an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you consent? Not once.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she relinquished her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

The prosecutor, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's failure to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. The community is perhaps in the midst of that, maybe driven by the collective awareness spurred by the publication of your case.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how rape culture was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor said to Dogan: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a person, it’s an complete unpleasant societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five moved to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his father was aggressive and that the defendant began using drugs aged ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was caught by authorities for drug trafficking and his parent kicked him out of home. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a construction worker but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a son with a genetic condition, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a educational cafeteria. The court heard his spouse did not know he had repeated intimate relations beyond their marriage. His defence said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. Dogan had told a evaluator that once a year he sought paid sex on his special day. His lawyers stated to the court he had a medical condition caused by the anxiety of the original case.