An individual has been found guilty on higher court review of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her husband – and was given his prison sentence increased to 10 years.
Appeal Trial
Husamettin Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a retrial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.
A jury of four women and five men, accompanied by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her home in the south of France in the morning of June 29, 2019.
The court heard that Dogan, a married father, reached out to the victim's spouse, the husband, in an internet forum titled “without her consent”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to come to his home to rape his wife once he had sedated her into a unconscious state.
We trust the panel will affirm that in this country, human rights are also rights of women – that permission is personal, not delegated,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, her legal representative. “Consent is received directly and not via a representative from a husband.”
Case History
Dominique Pelicot, among the most severe sexual predators in modern French history, was given a prison term to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his spouse and soliciting numerous individuals to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a span of many years of their marriage.
Fifty other men were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to challenge his verdict. He was initially handed a term to 9 years in prison, a punishment 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”.
Testimony and Proof
Dogan had first sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his village in Provence to rape the victim, after informing his wife he was leaving, the testimony revealed.
Pelicot, who was brought from segregation in prison to briefly testify at the hearing, told the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he told to men by phone: “I want someone to assault my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”
The courtroom became a central issue for a wider discussion on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to assert he was blameless and had not committed rape, arguing that because the victim's husband had invited him into the bedroom, his actions had been permissible.
The jury in the higher court was shown visual proof of the victim's unconscious figure, comatose and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a grinning Dogan performed assault on several occasions over a timeframe of what investigators stated was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.
Defendant's Statements
The defendant told the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was violation. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the home, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused informed the court. “I carried on because he reassured me.”
Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to injure that individual.”
Victim's Response
The victim, who was supported upon leaving court each day by crowds assembled to stand with her, said to the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you raped me? It’s a crime to assault an unconscious woman. How could I have give you permission? Never.”
Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an global icon after she relinquished her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”
State's Argument
The prosecutor, speaking to the victim in court, said the defendant's refusal to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is perhaps in the process of that, perhaps motivated by the public consciousness resulting from the publication of your situation.”
The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how societal tolerance was still common in society as part of “archaic” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”
The prosecutor addressed Dogan: “While you reject it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole unpleasant societal structure that you are endorsing.”
Personal History
Dogan was born in 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 father was abusive and that Dogan began consuming marijuana at the age of ten. When Dogan was 17 he was stopped by police for selling narcotics and his father evicted him the family house. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his early 20s and had worked as a builder but had undergone periods of living on the streets.
He was wed and had a son with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had regular sexual encounters beyond their union. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his stressful life. The defendant had stated to a evaluator that annually he engaged in paid sex on his birthday. His legal representatives informed the court he had arthritis resulting from the stress of the initial proceedings.
