🔗 Share this article

A man was declared guilty on higher court review of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot following she was sedated by her then-husband – and has had his jail term raised to a decade.

Higher Court Case

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a appeal hearing this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A jury of five men and four women, joined by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her residence in Provence in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a family man, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s then husband, the husband, in an internet forum titled “without her consent”, where Pelicot was seeking men to enter his residence to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a unconscious state.

We trust the jury will affirm that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that agreement is individual, not transferred,” said the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Agreement is secured personally and not via a representative from a husband.”

Case History

The ex-husband, among the most severe sexual predators in modern French history, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for incapacitating his then wife and soliciting dozens of men to rape her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a period of many years of their union.

Fifty other men were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to challenge his conviction. He was originally given a sentence to nine years in prison, a sentence raised on Thursday to a decade.

The state's attorney, 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 traveled an hour from his town in the region to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was leaving, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was transported from segregation in prison to briefly testify at the appeal trial, told the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “sedated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to abuse my wife after I’ve put her to sleep unbeknownst to her.”

The courtroom became a key topic for a broader debate on societal attitudes 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 conduct had been permissible.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed video evidence of the victim's unresponsive form, unconscious and snoring in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault multiple times over a period of what police said was 3.5 hours. The judge said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by suffocation. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been unaware and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant stated to the court the footage were simply “sexual encounters” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He declared the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan told the court. “I proceeded because he persuaded me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to injure that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was supported upon leaving court each day by crowds assembled to support her, addressed the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you violated me? It is unlawful to rape an incapacitated woman. How could I have give you permission? Never.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an global icon after she waived her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, addressing the victim in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The public is possibly in the process of that, perhaps motivated by the public consciousness brought by the exposure of your ordeal.”

Sie 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 rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

Sie addressed the defendant: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire unpleasant social system that you are upholding.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The court heard that his father was violent and that Dogan began using drugs aged ten. When Dogan was 17 he was apprehended by authorities for drug trafficking and his father evicted him the residence. He was incarcerated in prison for drug dealing in his early 20s and had worked as a builder but had experienced periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had repeated extramarital activities outside their marriage. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. The defendant had told a mental health expert that each year he engaged in commercial sex on his special day. His attorneys informed the court he had arthritis resulting from the anxiety of the original case.