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A man was declared guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was sedated by her husband – and received his jail term raised to a decade.

Appeal Trial

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a retrial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A jury of four women and five men, joined by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her home in Provence in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a married father, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s then husband, the husband, in an digital platform titled “without her consent”, where the husband was recruiting men to come to his home to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a deep sleep.

We expect the panel will declare that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that agreement is personal, not delegated,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, her legal representative. “Permission is obtained personally and not through someone else from a husband.”

Case History

Dominique Pelicot, a notorious sex offenders in modern French history, was handed a sentence to twenty years in prison last year for drugging his wife at the time and inviting numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a duration of many years of their union.

Fifty other men were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to appeal against his sentence. He was first handed a term to nine years in prison, a punishment raised on Thursday to ten years.

The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any blame”.

Courtroom Details

The defendant had first sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his residence in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was stepping out, the evidence indicated.

The ex-husband, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily give evidence at the appeal trial, told the court that the accused had known his wife had been “drugged” and he told to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”

The proceedings became a focus point for a larger conversation on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to claim he was innocent and had not committed rape, stating that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the room, his behavior had been justifiable.

The jury in the higher court was shown visual proof of the victim's unresponsive form, comatose and snoring in a comatose state, while a grinning Dogan performed assault repeatedly over a duration of what investigators stated was several hours. The presiding judge said she had been at risk of death by asphyxiation. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant told the court the footage were simply “sexual encounters” and denied it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the house, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” the accused stated to the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to hurt that woman.”

Survivor's Statement

The survivor, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by onlookers assembled to stand with her, told the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you admit you raped me? It is illegal to assault an unaware woman. At what point did I give you consent? Never.”

The victim, 72, became an international feminist hero after she waived her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

State's Argument

The prosecutor, turning to the victim in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is possibly in the course of that, possibly propelled by the public consciousness brought by the revelation of your situation.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how societal tolerance was still common in society as part of “archaic” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

Sie addressed Dogan: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a person, it’s an entire sordid social system that you are upholding.”

Personal History

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five relocated to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The court heard that his parent was violent and that the defendant began consuming marijuana aged 10. When Dogan was 17 he was caught by authorities for dealing drugs and his parent forced him to leave the residence. He served time in prison for drug dealing in his young adulthood and had worked as a laborer but had faced periods of living on the streets.

He was wed and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The court heard his spouse did not know he had repeated sexual encounters outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his stressful life. Dogan had informed a evaluator that once a year he sought paid sex on his special day. His attorneys informed the court he had joint inflammation caused by the stress of the first trial.