An individual was declared guilty on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was sedated by her then-husband – and was given his prison sentence increased to 10 years.
Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a appeal hearing this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.
A panel of nine jurors, joined by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her residence in Provence in the morning of 29 June 2019.
The evidence showed that Dogan, a family man, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s then husband, the husband, in an digital platform called “without her knowledge”, where the husband was looking for men to come to his home to assault his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a deep sleep.
“We hope the jury will say loud and clear that in this country, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that consent is individual, not given by another,” said the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Consent is obtained directly and not through someone else from a husband.”
Dominique Pelicot, among the most severe sexual predators in recent French history, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and bringing in multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a duration of almost a decade of their marriage.
Fifty other men were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to appeal against his conviction. He was initially sentenced to 9 years in prison, a sentence increased on Thursday to ten years.
The chief prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any responsibility”.
The defendant had first sent the husband graphic images and then traveled an hour from his village in the region to rape the victim, after telling his wife he was stepping out, the evidence indicated.
The ex-husband, who was brought from segregation in prison to temporarily testify at the retrial, told the court that the accused had known his wife had been “sedated” and he said to men by phone: “I seek someone to assault my wife after I’ve sedated her without her knowledge.”
The trial became a focus point for a broader debate on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to assert he was innocent and had not engaged in violation, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the residence, his conduct had been permissible.
The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown recorded footage of the victim's limp body, comatose and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation on several occasions over a period of what police said was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by choking. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been unaware and had not given permission.
Dogan informed the court the recordings were simply “sex scenes” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He declared the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the home, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I tried to halt,” Dogan stated to the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”
Inquired if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to hurt that individual.”
Gisèle Pelicot, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by onlookers present to stand with her, addressed Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you admit you raped me? It is illegal to rape an unaware woman. At what point did I give you consent? At no time.”
The victim, 72, became an global icon after she relinquished her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”
Sie, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s failure to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is possibly in the process of that, perhaps motivated by the societal understanding brought by the exposure of your situation.”
Sie said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “outdated” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”
Sie told Dogan: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an complete sordid societal structure that you are upholding.”
The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of five relocated to France, where his father worked as a concierge. The evidence indicated that his father was abusive and that Dogan began using drugs at the age of 10. When he was seventeen he was caught by police for drug trafficking and his parent evicted him the residence. He served time in prison for trafficking in his early 20s and had worked as a builder but had undergone periods of homelessness.
He was wed and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The court heard his wife did not know he had regular sexual encounters outside their union. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had informed a court psychologist that once a year he sought paid sex on his birthday. His lawyers told the court he had joint inflammation caused by the anxiety of the first trial.
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