🔗 Share this article

An individual has been found guilty on higher court review of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and was given his jail term raised to a decade.

Appeal Trial

Husamettin Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a new trial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A jury of five men and four women, accompanied by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her home in southern France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that Dogan, a married father, made contact with the victim's husband at the time, the husband, in an online chatroom named “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was looking for men to visit his house to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a deep sleep.

“We hope the panel will declare that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that agreement is personal, not given by another,” declared the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Permission is obtained directly and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Case History

The husband, one of the worst sexual predators in recent French history, was given a prison term to two decades in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and inviting numerous individuals to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a span of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Numerous other individuals were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to appeal against his sentence. He was initially given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a penalty enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “completely denies to take any responsibility”.

Evidence Presented

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

Pelicot, who was transported from segregation in prison to briefly provide testimony at the hearing, stated to the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “sedated” and he told to men by phone: “I seek someone to assault my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The proceedings became a focus point for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to claim he was not guilty and had not committed rape, contending that because the victim's husband had invited him into the bedroom, his actions had been acceptable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s unresponsive form, comatose and breathing heavily in a deep sleep, while a smiling the perpetrator committed rape multiple times over a duration of what investigators stated was three and a half hours. The judge said she had been at peril of death by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant told the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and disputed it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused informed the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to injure that lady.”

Survivor's Statement

The survivor, who was cheered upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers present to back her, told the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you admit you violated me? It’s a crime to rape an incapacitated woman. How could I have give you agreement? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an global icon after she relinquished her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, turning to the victim in court, said the defendant's refusal to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. The public is perhaps in the process of that, possibly motivated by the collective awareness spurred by the publication of your situation.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how societal tolerance was still common in society as part of “outdated” forms of “male domination”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor told the defendant: “For as much as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire sordid social system that you are supporting.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 came to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed 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 parent kicked him out of home. He served time in prison for drug dealing in his young adulthood and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a son 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 intimate relations beyond their marriage. His defence said this was his way of coping with his stressful life. Dogan had told a court psychologist that each year he engaged in commercial sex on his birthday. His legal representatives informed the court he had joint inflammation triggered by the anxiety of the initial proceedings.