A man has been found guilty on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her husband – and was given his jail term extended to a decade.
Retrial Proceedings
Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a new trial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.
A jury of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her bedroom in southern France in the morning of June 29, 2019.
The testimony revealed that Dogan, a married father, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom titled “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was recruiting men to visit his house to rape his wife once he had sedated her into a deep sleep.
We expect the court will declare that in this country, human rights are also women’s rights – that permission is individual, not delegated,” stated the victim's attorney, her legal representative. “Permission is received personally and not through someone else from a husband.”
Case History
The husband, a notorious sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his then wife and inviting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a span of nearly ten years of their union.
Dozens of additional defendants were found convicted in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to challenge his sentence. He was first given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a punishment raised on Thursday to 10 years.
The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any responsibility”.
Testimony and Proof
Dogan had first sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his village in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was stepping out, the testimony revealed.
The ex-husband, who was transported from segregation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the hearing, stated to the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”
The trial became a focus point for a broader debate on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to say he was blameless and had not committed rape, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the room, his conduct had been acceptable.
The panel in the higher court was shown video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, unconscious and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation on several occasions over a duration of what investigators stated was several hours. The court official said she had been at peril of death by asphyxiation. The prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.
Dogan's Claims
The defendant stated to the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was violation. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not assault. He stated the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the home, and therefore it was OK. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused informed the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”
Questioned if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to injure that woman.”
Survivor's Statement
The survivor, who was applauded upon leaving court each day by crowds gathered to support her, said to Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When will you admit you raped me? It is unlawful to rape an incapacitated woman. How could I have give you permission? Never.”
Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she gave up her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”
Prosecutor's Remarks
Sie, speaking to the victim in court, said the defendant's refusal to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. The public is maybe in the midst of that, perhaps propelled by the collective awareness brought by the revelation of your ordeal.”
The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how societal tolerance was still widespread in society as part of “archaic” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”
Sie told Dogan: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole disturbing societal structure that you are endorsing.”
Personal History
The accused was originated from Turkey and at the age of 5 came to France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The evidence indicated that his father was violent and that Dogan began using drugs at the age of ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for selling narcotics and his father forced him to leave the residence. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a builder but had undergone periods of homelessness.
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 testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had repeated intimate relations outside their union. His defence said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. The defendant had stated to a mental health expert that each year he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His lawyers stated to the court he had a medical condition caused by the stress of the original case.
