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An individual was declared guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her husband – and received his prison sentence raised to 10 years.

Higher Court Case

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a appeal hearing this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A panel of four women and five men, accompanied by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her home in southern France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that Dogan, a family man, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum called “without her consent”, where the husband was recruiting men to enter his residence to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

We trust the court will declare that in this country, human rights are also rights of women – that consent is individual, not given by another,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, her legal representative. “Agreement is obtained personally and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Context

The husband, a notorious sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his then wife and bringing in numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found convicted in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to challenge his sentence. He was first sentenced to 9 years in prison, a punishment raised on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any accountability”.

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his town in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the appeal trial, informed 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 sedated her without her consent.”

The proceedings became a central issue for a broader debate on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to say he was blameless and had not committed rape, arguing that because the victim's husband had invited him into the room, his actions had been permissible.

The jury in the higher court was presented with video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, comatose and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a smiling the perpetrator performed assault multiple times over a period of what police said was three and a half hours. The judge said she had been at risk of death by choking. The state's case said there was no question that she had been unaware and had not given permission.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant informed the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and denied it was violation. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He told the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the home, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan stated to the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to hurt that lady.”

Pelicot's Words

Gisèle Pelicot, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters present to stand with her, told Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When are you going to recognise you assaulted me? It is illegal to rape an unaware woman. At what point did I give you agreement? Not once.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she gave up her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. Society is possibly in the midst of that, perhaps driven by the societal understanding spurred by the exposure of your situation.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “archaic” forms of “male domination”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor said to the defendant: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an complete unpleasant social system that you are upholding.”

Personal History

The accused was originated from the country of Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The court heard that his parent was aggressive and that the defendant began using drugs at the age of ten. When he was seventeen he was stopped by police for drug trafficking and his parent forced him to leave of home. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his early 20s and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had repeated sexual encounters outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. The defendant had informed a evaluator that annually he sought transactional encounters on his special day. His attorneys told the court he had arthritis triggered by the stress of the initial proceedings.