A man has been found guilty on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was sedated by her spouse – and was given his jail term extended to a decade.
Higher Court Case
Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his first conviction last year, underwent a retrial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.
A panel of four women and five men, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her home in Provence in the early hours of June 29, 2019.
The evidence showed that the accused, a married father, made contact with the victim's then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom titled “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to visit his house to rape his wife after he had drugged her into a deep sleep.
We expect the panel will declare that in this country, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that agreement is individual, not transferred,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is received directly and not via a representative from a husband.”
Case History
Dominique Pelicot, among the most severe sex offenders in modern French history, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for drugging his spouse and inviting numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a duration of almost a decade of their marriage.
Dozens of additional defendants were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to challenge his sentence. He was originally handed a term to nine years in prison, a penalty enhanced on Thursday to ten years.
The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any accountability”.
Evidence Presented
The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his village in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was going out, the evidence indicated.
The ex-husband, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to briefly testify at the retrial, informed the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.”
The courtroom became a focus point for a larger conversation on sexual violence norms in society as the defendant continued to claim he was blameless and had not engaged in violation, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the room, his behavior had been acceptable.
The jury in the higher court was presented with recorded footage of the victim's limp body, unconscious and snoring in a comatose state, while a smiling the perpetrator committed rape on several occasions over a period of what investigators stated was several hours. The presiding judge said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unaware and had not consented.
Dogan's Claims
The defendant stated to the court the videos were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the residence, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I tried to halt,” Dogan informed the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”
Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to harm that lady.”
Survivor's Statement
The survivor, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds present to support her, told the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It is unlawful to rape an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you agreement? At no time.”
The victim, seventy-two, became an symbol of resistance after she gave up her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”
Legal Commentary
The prosecutor, speaking to the victim in court, said the defendant's refusal to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is maybe in the process of that, perhaps motivated by the collective awareness spurred by the exposure of your case.”
The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”
The prosecutor told the defendant: “For as much as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire disturbing societal structure that you are endorsing.”
Defendant's Background
Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 came to France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The court heard that his father was violent and that the defendant began smoking cannabis aged ten. When he was seventeen he was apprehended by authorities for selling narcotics and his father forced him to leave the family house. He served time in prison for narcotics offenses in his twenties and had worked as a builder but had undergone periods of being unhoused.
He was married and had a child with special needs, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his spouse did not know he had regular sexual encounters outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his stressful life. The defendant had informed a court psychologist that once a year he looked for commercial sex on his birthday. His lawyers informed the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the anxiety of the first trial.
