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A man has been found guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her husband – and has had his prison sentence raised to a decade.

Appeal Trial

Husamettin Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had contested his first conviction last year, faced a new trial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A jury of five men and four women, accompanied by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her home in southern France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a family man, made contact with the victim's husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum titled “without her knowledge”, where the husband was recruiting men to enter his residence to assault his wife after he had sedated her into a deep sleep.

“We hope the jury will declare that in this country, human rights are also women’s rights – that consent is individual, not given by another,” said the victim's attorney, her legal representative. “Permission is obtained directly and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Background

The ex-husband, a notorious sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was handed a sentence to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his then wife and inviting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a period of nearly ten years 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 originally sentenced to nine years in prison, a penalty enhanced on Thursday to ten years.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any blame”.

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had initially sent the husband graphic images and then driven an hour from his residence in Provence to assault the victim, after notifying his wife he was going out, the evidence indicated.

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

The trial became a focus point for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to assert he was innocent and had not engaged in violation, stating that because the victim's husband had invited him into the room, his behavior had been permissible.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, comatose and snoring in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator committed rape on several occasions over a timeframe of what authorities reported was several hours. The presiding judge said she had been at risk of death by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been unaware and had not agreed.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan informed the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. 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 OK. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I tried to halt,” the accused informed the court. “I continued because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to hurt that lady.”

Survivor's Statement

The survivor, who was cheered upon leaving court each day by crowds present to stand with her, addressed the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you raped me? It’s a crime to assault an unaware woman. When did I ever give you consent? Never.”

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

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, addressing the victim in court, said the defendant's refusal to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is possibly in the course of that, maybe propelled by the public consciousness spurred by the exposure of your case.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still common in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “It is imperative to change rape culture to a culture of consent.”

Sie told the defendant: “As long as you reject it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole disturbing societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was originated from the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his father was aggressive and that the defendant began consuming marijuana aged ten. When Dogan was 17 he was stopped by police for selling narcotics and his father kicked him out the residence. He served time in prison for drug dealing in his early 20s and had worked as a construction worker but had undergone periods of living on the streets.

He was wed and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had frequent sexual encounters outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. The defendant had informed a mental health expert that each year he looked for transactional encounters on his special day. His attorneys stated to the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the anxiety of the original case.