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A man has been found guilty on appeal of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her husband – and received his incarceration period raised to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

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

A jury of four women and five men, accompanied by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her residence in the south of France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a family man, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, the husband, in an online chatroom titled “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was looking for men to enter his residence to assault his wife once he had drugged her into a deep sleep.

We trust the court will affirm that in this nation, human rights are also women’s rights – that consent is individual, not given by another,” stated the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Consent is secured personally and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Context

The husband, among the most severe sex offenders in modern French history, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and bringing in numerous individuals to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a duration of many years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to challenge his verdict. He was first handed a term to 9 years in prison, a sentence raised on Thursday to ten years.

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

Evidence Presented

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his residence in Provence to rape the victim, after informing his wife he was leaving, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was brought from segregation in prison to briefly testify at the retrial, told the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “sedated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to violate my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”

The proceedings became a key topic for a broader debate on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to assert he was not guilty and had not engaged in violation, contending that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the room, his actions had been justifiable.

The panel in the higher court was shown recorded footage of Gisèle Pelicot’s unresponsive form, sedated and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a smiling Dogan performed assault repeatedly over a duration of what investigators stated was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by suffocation. The prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been incapacitated and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan informed the court the footage were simply “sexual encounters” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the residence, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan informed the court. “I proceeded because he persuaded me.”

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

Victim's Response

The victim, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds present to stand with her, told the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It is illegal to rape an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you permission? At no time.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an symbol of resistance after she relinquished her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, addressing the victim in court, said the defendant's refusal to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is possibly in the midst of that, perhaps driven by the collective awareness resulting from the publication of your situation.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how societal tolerance was still common in society as part of “outdated” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

The prosecutor addressed Dogan: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an complete sordid social system that you are upholding.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five moved to the nation of France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his father was violent and that Dogan began smoking cannabis aged 10. When he was 17 he was stopped by authorities for drug trafficking and his parent forced him to leave the residence. He served time in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had repeated sexual encounters outside their union. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. Dogan had told a evaluator that each year he looked for commercial sex on his special day. His legal representatives informed the court he had joint inflammation caused by the stress of the original case.