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A defendant has been found guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her husband – and has had his incarceration period increased to 10 years.

Retrial Proceedings

Husamettin Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his first conviction 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 raping Pelicot in her bedroom in the south of France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that Dogan, a family man, reached out to the victim's spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom called “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was seeking men to visit his house to rape his wife after he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

We trust the jury will declare that in this country, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that agreement is individual, not delegated,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Permission is received personally and not through someone else from a husband.”

Context

Dominique Pelicot, a notorious sex offenders in recent French history, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year for drugging his wife at the time and inviting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the town of Mazan over a period of almost a decade of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to contest his sentence. He was originally given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to 10 years.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any blame”.

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then traveled an hour from his village in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was brought from isolation in prison to briefly give evidence at the retrial, told the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “incapacitated” and he told to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her consent.”

The trial became a central issue for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to say he was innocent and had not engaged in violation, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had welcomed him into the room, his behavior had been permissible.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with recorded footage of the victim's unresponsive form, sedated and breathing heavily in a deep sleep, while a grinning Dogan engaged in violation repeatedly over a timeframe of what police said was several hours. The presiding judge said she had been at danger of death by choking. The prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan told the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was assault. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. He stated the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the house, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” Dogan stated to the court. “I proceeded because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to harm that lady.”

Pelicot's Words

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters present to back her, told Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you raped me? It is illegal to assault an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you consent? Never.”

The victim, 72, became an global icon after she waived her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, speaking to the victim in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take accountability showed that: “The shame remains. Society is maybe in the process of that, maybe driven by the collective awareness resulting from the exposure of your ordeal.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how societal tolerance was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “It is imperative to change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

Sie addressed the defendant: “For as much as you reject it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole disturbing cultural framework that you are supporting.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The court heard that his parent was violent and that Dogan began consuming marijuana aged ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was apprehended by authorities for dealing drugs and his father evicted him the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a child with special needs, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a educational cafeteria. The court heard his spouse did not know he had frequent intimate relations beyond their marriage. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had stated to a evaluator that annually he looked for commercial sex on his special day. His lawyers stated to the court he had arthritis caused by the stress of the original case.