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A defendant has been found guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her then-husband – and was given his incarceration period increased to ten years.

Higher Court Case

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

A panel of five men and four women, joined by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping the victim in her home in the south of France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a family man, connected with the victim's husband at the time, the husband, in an internet forum named “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was looking for men to enter his residence to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a unconscious state.

“We hope the jury will affirm that in this country, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that consent is individual, not given by another,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Consent is received personally and not via a representative from a husband.”

Case History

Dominique Pelicot, a notorious sex offenders in modern French history, was given a prison term to two decades in prison last year for incapacitating his wife at the time and inviting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a period of almost a decade of their union.

Fifty other men were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to challenge his conviction. He was originally given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to ten years.

The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any blame”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had initially sent the husband graphic images and then driven an hour from his village in the region to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was leaving, the evidence indicated.

The ex-husband, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily give evidence at the retrial, told the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “sedated” and he said 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 sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to say he was not guilty and had not engaged in violation, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the residence, his conduct had been permissible.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed video evidence of the victim's unconscious figure, unconscious and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a smiling the perpetrator engaged in violation 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's case said there was no doubt that she had been unaware and had not given permission.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan told the court the footage were simply “sexual encounters” and disputed it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He stated the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan stated to the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to harm that woman.”

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by supporters present to support her, said to the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you admit you raped me? It’s a crime to rape an unconscious woman. How could I have give you consent? At no time.”

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

Prosecutor's Remarks

The prosecutor, addressing the victim in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is maybe in the midst of that, maybe driven by the public consciousness brought by the revelation of your ordeal.”

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

The prosecutor said to the defendant: “As long as you reject it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole unpleasant societal structure that you are upholding.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five relocated to France, where his father worked as a building manager. The court heard that his parent was aggressive and that Dogan began consuming marijuana at the age of ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was stopped by police for drug trafficking and his father kicked him out the residence. He spent time in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a laborer but had experienced periods of living on the streets.

He was wed and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his wife did not know he had regular intimate relations outside their marriage. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his stressful life. Dogan had informed a evaluator that once a year he engaged in paid sex on his special day. His legal representatives stated to the court he had a medical condition caused by the stress of the original case.