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An individual was convicted on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband – and received his prison sentence increased to 10 years.

Retrial Proceedings

Husamettin Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had appealed his first conviction last year, experienced a appeal hearing this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of nine jurors, joined by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her home in the south of France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a married father, reached out to the victim's husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom named “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to come to his home to assault his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

We expect the court will declare that in this country, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that permission is individual, not delegated,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is secured personally and not through someone else from a husband.”

Case History

Dominique Pelicot, among the most severe sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for sedating his spouse and inviting numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a span of nearly ten years of their union.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to challenge his conviction. He was first handed a term to nine years in prison, a penalty enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any responsibility”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had first sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his residence in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was stepping out, the evidence indicated.

The ex-husband, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to briefly give evidence at the appeal trial, told the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep 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 blameless and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the residence, his behavior had been justifiable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, unconscious and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a smiling the perpetrator committed rape multiple times over a duration of what investigators stated was 3.5 hours. The presiding judge said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by suffocation. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant told the court the recordings were simply “sexual encounters” and rejected it was assault. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He declared the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” Dogan stated to the court. “I continued because he convinced me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to harm that lady.”

Survivor's Statement

Gisèle Pelicot, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by onlookers gathered to stand with her, said to Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It is unlawful to rape an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you agreement? At no time.”

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

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, turning to the victim in court, said the defendant's failure to take accountability showed that: “The shame remains. Society is possibly in the midst of that, possibly propelled by the public consciousness brought by the revelation of your situation.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “archaic” forms of “gender-based power”. 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 sordid social system that you are upholding.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his parent was aggressive and that Dogan began smoking cannabis aged 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was caught by authorities for drug trafficking and his father forced him to leave the residence. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had frequent sexual encounters outside their union. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had stated to a mental health expert that annually he sought paid sex on his birthday. His lawyers told the court he had joint inflammation caused by the pressure of the initial proceedings.