France's Higher Court Raises Jail Time for Gisèle Pelicot Rapist

A defendant was declared guilty on appeal of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was sedated by her then-husband – and was given his jail term extended to 10 years.

Appeal Trial

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a new trial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of five men and four women, accompanied by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her residence in southern France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The testimony revealed that the accused, a family man, reached out to the victim's then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform titled “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was recruiting men to come to his home to rape his wife after he had sedated her into a deep sleep.

We trust the panel will declare that in this nation, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that agreement is personal, not given by another,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Consent is secured personally and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Context

The ex-husband, among the most severe sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year for drugging his spouse and inviting numerous individuals to sexually assault her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a period of almost a decade of their marriage.

Numerous other individuals were found convicted in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to contest his conviction. He was first handed a term to nine years in prison, a sentence raised on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any blame”.

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had initially sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his residence in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was leaving, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the hearing, told the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “incapacitated” and he told to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her consent.”

The proceedings became a key topic for a larger conversation on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to say he was innocent and had not committed rape, contending that because the victim's husband had invited him into the residence, his conduct had been justifiable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with visual proof of the victim's unconscious figure, sedated and breathing heavily in a deep sleep, while a grinning Dogan engaged in violation multiple times over a period of what investigators stated was 3.5 hours. The presiding judge said she had been at danger of death by choking. The state's case said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not consented.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant informed the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was violation. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He stated the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said the victim'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.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to hurt that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by supporters gathered to stand with her, addressed Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It’s a crime to rape an unaware woman. How could I have give you consent? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she waived her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

The prosecutor, speaking to the victim in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is perhaps in the process of that, maybe motivated by the collective awareness brought by the exposure of your case.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “outdated” forms of “male domination”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor said to Dogan: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a person, it’s an complete unpleasant societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Personal History

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five relocated to the nation of France, where his father worked as a building manager. The testimony revealed that his father was violent and that Dogan began smoking cannabis at the age of ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was stopped by police for drug trafficking and his parent forced him to leave the family house. He served time in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his wife did not know he had regular intimate relations outside their union. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had informed a court psychologist that once a year he sought transactional encounters on his special day. His legal representatives stated to the court he had arthritis caused by the pressure of the initial proceedings.