An individual was declared guilty on higher court review of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her husband – and has had his incarceration period increased to 10 years.
Retrial Proceedings
Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a appeal hearing this week at the higher court in Nîmes.
A jury of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her residence in Provence in the morning of June 29, 2019.
The evidence showed that the accused, a family man, made contact with the victim's husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum titled “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to come to his home to rape his wife after he had sedated her into a deep sleep.
We expect the panel will say loud and clear that in this society, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is personal, not given by another,” declared the victim's attorney, her legal representative. “Permission is secured personally and not by proxy from a husband.”
Case History
Dominique Pelicot, one of the worst sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for drugging his spouse and bringing in numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the community of Mazan over a span of many years of their marriage.
Numerous other individuals were found convicted in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to contest his sentence. He was first sentenced to 9 years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to ten years.
The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any accountability”.
Courtroom Details
The defendant had initially sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his village in the region to rape the victim, after telling his wife he was leaving, the testimony revealed.
The ex-husband, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the retrial, stated to the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “sedated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to violate my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”
The proceedings became a central issue for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to say he was innocent and had not perpetrated assault, stating that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the bedroom, his actions had been permissible.
The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with recorded footage of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, sedated and breathing heavily in a deep sleep, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault repeatedly over a duration of what police said was several hours. The judge said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by choking. The state's case said there was no doubt that she had been unaware and had not agreed.
Accused's Testimony
The defendant stated to the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was violation. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not assault. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the home, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I tried to halt,” Dogan told the court. “I proceeded because he reassured me.”
Questioned if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to injure that lady.”
Pelicot's Words
The survivor, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by crowds present to support her, told the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you admit you assaulted me? It is unlawful to rape an incapacitated woman. How could I have give you permission? Not once.”
Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an international feminist hero after she gave up her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”
State's Argument
The prosecutor, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take accountability showed that: “The shame remains. The public is maybe in the course of that, perhaps motivated by the public consciousness resulting from the exposure of your situation.”
Sie said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how rape culture was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “male domination”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”
Sie addressed Dogan: “For as much as you reject it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire disturbing societal structure that you are supporting.”
Biographical Details
The accused was originated from the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated 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 forced him to leave the residence. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his early 20s and had worked as a construction worker but had faced periods of being unhoused.
He was wed and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had regular sexual encounters outside their union. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had stated to a evaluator that annually he looked for paid sex on his special day. His attorneys told the court he had joint inflammation caused by the anxiety of the original case.
