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A defendant was convicted on appeal of raping Gisele Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband – and received his jail term raised to ten years.

Appeal Trial

Husamettin Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had appealed his first conviction last year, underwent a new trial 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 residence in southern France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a family man, made contact with the victim's then husband, the husband, in an online chatroom named “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was looking for men to come to his home to assault his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a unconscious state.

We trust the jury will affirm that in this nation, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that consent is personal, not delegated,” said the victim's attorney, her legal representative. “Agreement is secured personally and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Case History

The ex-husband, a notorious sexual predators in recent French history, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for drugging his wife at the time and soliciting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the town of Mazan over a duration of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to challenge his conviction. He was first given a sentence to nine years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to 10 years.

The chief prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any accountability”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his town in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the retrial, informed the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to assault my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her consent.”

The proceedings became a focus point for a larger conversation on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to assert he was blameless and had not committed rape, arguing that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the room, his conduct had been justifiable.

The panel in the higher court was shown recorded footage of the victim's limp body, unconscious and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a smiling Dogan engaged in violation on several occasions over a timeframe of what authorities reported was several hours. The court official said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by choking. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan told the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the home, and therefore it was OK. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I tried to halt,” the accused stated to the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to harm that individual.”

Survivor's Statement

The survivor, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by supporters assembled to stand with her, said to Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you assaulted me? It is unlawful to assault an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you agreement? Never.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an symbol of resistance after she relinquished her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

The prosecutor, addressing the victim in court, said the defendant's failure to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. The public is possibly in the process of that, perhaps driven by the collective awareness spurred by the exposure of your case.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how rape culture was still common in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

Sie told Dogan: “As long as you reject it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole unpleasant social system that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five relocated to France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his father was violent and that Dogan began smoking cannabis aged 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was caught by police for selling narcotics and his parent forced him to leave the residence. He spent time in prison for trafficking in his early 20s and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a son with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had repeated sexual encounters beyond their marriage. His defence said this was his way of coping with his stressful life. The defendant had told a mental health expert that annually he sought commercial sex on his birthday. His lawyers told the court he had a medical condition resulting from the anxiety of the first trial.