A defendant was convicted on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was sedated by her spouse – and was given his prison sentence increased to a decade.
Retrial Proceedings
Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his first conviction last year, faced a retrial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.
A panel of four women and five men, sitting with three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her residence in Provence in the morning of 29 June 2019.
The testimony revealed that the accused, a married father, connected with the victim's spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum titled “without her knowledge”, where the husband was seeking men to enter his residence to rape his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a deep sleep.
We trust the panel will affirm that in this nation, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that permission is individual, not transferred,” declared the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is received personally and not through someone else from a husband.”
Case History
Dominique Pelicot, a notorious sex offenders in recent French history, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for drugging his wife at the time and soliciting dozens of men to rape her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their union.
Fifty other men were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to challenge his sentence. He was first handed a term to 9 years in prison, a sentence enhanced on Thursday to ten years.
The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “completely denies to take any responsibility”.
Courtroom Details
Dogan had first sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his village in the region to rape the victim, after notifying his wife he was going out, the evidence indicated.
The ex-husband, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily testify at the retrial, told the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her consent.”
The trial became a central issue for a larger conversation on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to say he was blameless and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the residence, his conduct had been acceptable.
The panel in the higher court was presented with recorded footage of the victim's unresponsive form, comatose and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a smiling Dogan committed rape multiple times over a timeframe of what authorities reported was several hours. The presiding judge said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.
Accused's Testimony
The defendant stated to the court the videos were simply “sexual encounters” and denied it was violation. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not assault. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the residence, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan informed the court. “I proceeded because he persuaded me.”
Inquired if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to hurt that lady.”
Victim's Response
The victim, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds gathered to stand with her, said to the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When are you going to recognise you assaulted me? It’s a crime to assault an unaware woman. At what point did I give you agreement? At no time.”
Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an global icon after she relinquished her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”
Prosecutor's Remarks
The prosecutor, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take accountability showed that: “The shame remains. The public is maybe in the midst of that, perhaps propelled by the public consciousness resulting from the publication of your ordeal.”
The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”
Sie said to the defendant: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a person, it’s an complete disturbing societal structure that you are supporting.”
Biographical Details
The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five moved to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The testimony revealed that his father was violent and that Dogan began consuming marijuana at the age of ten. When Dogan was 17 he was stopped by police for dealing drugs and his father forced him to leave the residence. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his early 20s and had worked as a builder but had experienced periods of being unhoused.
He was married and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The court heard his spouse did not know he had regular sexual encounters beyond their union. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had stated to a court psychologist that each year he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His lawyers informed the court he had joint inflammation caused by the pressure of the first trial.
