France's Higher Court Uphighers Sentence for Gisèle Pelicot Perpetrator

A defendant was convicted on appeal of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her husband – and has had his incarceration period raised to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had contested his first conviction last year, faced a appeal hearing this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

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

The court heard that the accused, a married father, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom named “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was seeking men to come to his home to assault his wife once he had drugged her into a deep sleep.

We expect the panel will affirm that in this society, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that permission is personal, not delegated,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is received personally and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Context

The ex-husband, one of the worst sex offenders in recent French history, was given a prison term to two decades in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and soliciting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a duration of many years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to challenge his conviction. He was originally handed a term to 9 years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to ten years.

The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any responsibility”.

Testimony and Proof

Dogan had initially sent the husband graphic images and then driven an hour from his residence in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to briefly testify at the hearing, told the court that the accused had known his wife had been “sedated” and he told to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The trial became a focus point for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to claim he was blameless and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the bedroom, his conduct had been permissible.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed recorded footage of Gisèle Pelicot’s unresponsive form, comatose and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a smiling Dogan engaged in violation multiple times over a duration of what police said was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at danger of death by suffocation. The state's case said there was no doubt that she had been incapacitated and had not consented.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan told the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. He declared the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I tried to halt,” Dogan stated to the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to injure that lady.”

Pelicot's Words

The victim, who was cheered upon leaving court each day by supporters present to support her, told Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you acknowledge you raped me? It is unlawful to assault an unconscious woman. When did I ever give you consent? At no time.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an symbol of resistance after she waived her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

State's Argument

The prosecutor, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take responsibility showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The community is possibly in the course of that, possibly motivated by the public consciousness brought 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 “outdated” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a culture of consent.”

The prosecutor told the defendant: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a person, it’s an entire sordid social system that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was originated from the country of Turkey and at the age of five relocated to France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his father was aggressive and that the defendant began consuming marijuana aged 10. When Dogan was 17 he was apprehended by authorities for drug trafficking and his parent evicted him the residence. He was incarcerated in prison for drug dealing in his early 20s and had worked as a laborer but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had frequent extramarital activities beyond their union. His defence said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. Dogan had told a evaluator that annually he engaged in commercial sex on his birthday. His lawyers told the court he had joint inflammation triggered by the stress of the first trial.