A man has been found guilty on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was sedated by her spouse – and was given his jail term extended to ten years.
Husamettin Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had contested his first conviction last year, faced a retrial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.
A panel of nine jurors, joined by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her bedroom in Provence in the morning of 29 June 2019.
The court heard that Dogan, a married father, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform titled “without her consent”, where the husband was recruiting men to come to his home to rape his wife after he had drugged her into a unconscious state.
We trust the court will affirm that in this nation, human rights are also women’s rights – that permission is individual, not transferred,” declared the victim's attorney, her legal representative. “Consent is obtained personally and not by proxy from a spouse.”
Dominique Pelicot, one of the worst sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and soliciting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the town of Mazan over a duration of almost a decade of their union.
Fifty other men were found culpable in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to contest his verdict. He was first given a sentence to nine years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to 10 years.
The chief prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any accountability”.
Dogan had first sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his residence in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.
Pelicot, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the hearing, told the court that the accused had been aware 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 without her consent.”
The trial became a focus point for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to say he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the room, his actions had been justifiable.
The panel in the higher court was displayed visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, comatose and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation on several occasions over a timeframe of what police said was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by choking. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unaware and had not given permission.
Dogan informed the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and disputed it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the residence, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I tried to halt,” Dogan told the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”
Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to injure that individual.”
Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon leaving court each day by crowds assembled to support her, said to the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you violated me? It’s a crime to rape an unconscious woman. How could I have give you agreement? At no time.”
Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an international feminist hero after she waived her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”
Sie, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. Society is maybe in the process of that, maybe driven by the societal understanding brought by the revelation 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 “male domination”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”
Sie told the defendant: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole disturbing social system that you are endorsing.”
The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to the nation of France, where his father worked as a concierge. The evidence indicated that his parent was violent and that Dogan began using drugs aged ten. When he was seventeen he was caught by authorities for selling narcotics and his father evicted him the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a builder but had undergone periods of living on the streets.
He was wed and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a educational cafeteria. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had repeated sexual encounters beyond their union. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. The defendant had stated to a mental health expert that annually he looked for commercial sex on his birthday. His legal representatives informed the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the anxiety of the first trial.
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