🔗 Share this article

A defendant was convicted on higher court review of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was sedated by her spouse – and received his incarceration period extended to 10 years.

Retrial Proceedings

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a new trial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her residence in Provence in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a married father, made contact with the victim's husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform titled “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was seeking men to enter his residence to assault his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

We trust the jury will say loud and clear that in this country, human rights are also rights of women – that permission is personal, not given by another,” stated the victim's attorney, her legal representative. “Permission is received directly and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Background

Dominique Pelicot, among the most severe sex offenders in recent French history, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his then wife and soliciting dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a duration of nearly ten years of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to appeal against his verdict. He was first handed a term to nine years in prison, a sentence enhanced on Thursday to ten years.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any blame”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had initially sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his town in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was stepping out, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was brought from segregation in prison to temporarily testify at the hearing, informed the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”

The courtroom became a key topic for a broader debate on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to assert he was blameless and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because the victim's husband had invited him into the residence, his actions had been permissible.

The jury in the higher court was presented with recorded footage of the victim's limp body, sedated and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a smiling the perpetrator engaged in violation multiple times over a timeframe of what investigators stated was several hours. The court official said she had been at risk of death by suffocation. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan informed the court the videos were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was violation. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He stated the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the residence, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused stated to the court. “I carried on because he reassured me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to injure that lady.”

Survivor's Statement

Gisèle Pelicot, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by onlookers assembled to stand with her, told the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It’s a crime to rape an unconscious woman. How could I have give you consent? Never.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she relinquished her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, speaking to the victim in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The public is possibly in the midst of that, perhaps driven by the public consciousness resulting from the revelation of your case.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how rape culture was still widespread in society as part of “archaic” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor told Dogan: “For as much as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire disturbing cultural framework that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was originated from the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The evidence indicated that his parent was violent and that the defendant began smoking cannabis at the age of ten. When he was seventeen he was caught by police for drug trafficking and his father kicked him out the residence. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his early 20s and had worked as a construction worker but had faced 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 wife worked in a school canteen. The court heard his wife did not know he had regular sexual encounters outside their union. His defence said this was his way of coping with his stressful life. The defendant had stated to a mental health expert that annually he looked for transactional encounters on his birthday. His attorneys told the court he had a medical condition triggered by the stress of the first trial.