🔗 Share this article

An individual has been found guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her husband – and has had his jail term increased to a decade.

Appeal Trial

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his first conviction last year, experienced a new trial 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 the victim in her residence in the south of France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that Dogan, a married father, made contact with the victim's spouse, the husband, in an digital platform called “without her consent”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to enter his residence to rape his wife after he had drugged her into a unconscious state.

We expect the jury will declare that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that permission is individual, not delegated,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, her legal representative. “Consent is obtained directly and not via a representative from a husband.”

Context

The husband, a notorious sex offenders in recent French history, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for drugging his wife at the time and inviting numerous individuals to sexually assault her in her home in the community of Mazan over a duration of almost a decade of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found convicted in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to appeal against his verdict. He was first sentenced to nine years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to a decade.

The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any responsibility”.

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had initially sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his town in the region to rape the victim, after telling his wife he was going out, the evidence indicated.

The ex-husband, who was transported from segregation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the retrial, told the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “sedated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to violate my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”

The trial became a focus point for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to claim he was innocent and had not engaged in violation, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the bedroom, his actions had been permissible.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, sedated and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator committed rape repeatedly over a timeframe of what police said was 3.5 hours. The judge said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by choking. The prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

The defendant stated to the court the footage were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not assault. He told the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I tried to halt,” the accused informed the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to injure that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

The victim, who was supported upon leaving court each day by crowds present to stand with her, told Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you assaulted me? It’s a crime to assault an unaware woman. At what point did I give you consent? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an international feminist hero after she waived her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, speaking to the victim in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take blame showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The community is maybe in the course of that, maybe motivated by the societal understanding brought by the exposure of your case.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

Sie told Dogan: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire disturbing societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Personal History

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to France, where his father worked as a concierge. The evidence indicated that his parent was aggressive and that the defendant began smoking cannabis at the age of ten. When he was 17 he was apprehended by police for drug trafficking and his father forced him to leave of home. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of living on the streets.

He was married and had a son with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his wife did not know he had regular sexual encounters beyond their marriage. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had stated to a court psychologist that once a year he looked for paid sex on his special day. His lawyers told the court he had joint inflammation caused by the anxiety of the original case.