French Higher Court Uphighers Sentence for Gisele Pelicot Rapist

A man was convicted on retrial of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her husband – and received his jail term raised to 10 years.

Retrial Proceedings

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a retrial 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 the victim in her bedroom in Provence in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a married father, connected with the victim's spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum named “without her knowledge”, where the husband was looking for men to visit his house to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a deep sleep.

We trust the court will affirm that in this country, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that consent is personal, not given by another,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, her legal representative. “Agreement is received directly and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Case History

Dominique Pelicot, one of the worst sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and bringing in numerous individuals to sexually assault her in her home in the community of Mazan over a span of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found convicted in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to appeal against his conviction. He was first handed a term to 9 years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any blame”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his village in the region to assault the victim, after notifying his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to briefly provide testimony at the hearing, told the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to assault my wife after I’ve put her to sleep unbeknownst to her.”

The courtroom became a central issue for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to say he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the residence, his actions had been justifiable.

The panel in the higher court was presented with visual proof of the victim's unresponsive form, unconscious and snoring in a deep sleep, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault repeatedly over a timeframe of what police said was three and a half hours. The judge said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan told the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and disputed it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He told the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” the accused informed the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to harm that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

The victim, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters gathered to support her, said to Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you raped me? It is illegal to assault an unaware woman. How could I have give you agreement? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an symbol of resistance after she relinquished her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, turning to the victim in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take accountability showed that: “The shame remains. The public is maybe in the course of that, maybe motivated by the collective awareness resulting from the exposure of your situation.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “outdated” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor said to the defendant: “While you reject it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire sordid social system that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The testimony revealed that his father was abusive and that Dogan began using drugs aged 10. When he was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for drug trafficking and his parent kicked him out of home. He was incarcerated in prison for drug dealing in his young adulthood and had worked as a laborer but had experienced periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the primary guardian for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had repeated extramarital activities outside their marriage. His defence said this was his way of coping with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had told a mental health expert that annually he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His lawyers stated to the court he had arthritis triggered by the pressure of the original case.