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A defendant has been found guilty on higher court review of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and was given his jail term extended to ten years.

Higher Court Case

Husamettin Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a appeal hearing this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

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

The evidence showed that Dogan, a family man, reached out to the victim's husband at the time, the husband, in an internet forum named “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was looking for men to visit his house to rape his wife once he had sedated her into a comatose state.

We trust the panel will affirm that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that consent is individual, not delegated,” stated the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Consent is obtained personally and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Context

The husband, among the most severe sex offenders in modern French history, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and soliciting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the community of Mazan over a duration of almost a decade of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found culpable in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to challenge his conviction. He was first handed a term to 9 years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to 10 years.

The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any blame”.

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then driven an hour from his town in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was brought from segregation in prison to briefly provide testimony at the appeal trial, informed the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “incapacitated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to assault my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her consent.”

The courtroom became a central issue for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to claim he was innocent and had not committed rape, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had welcomed him into the residence, his conduct had been acceptable.

The jury in the higher court was presented with video evidence of the victim's limp body, comatose and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a smiling the perpetrator performed assault repeatedly over a timeframe of what police said was three and a half hours. The presiding judge said she had been at peril of death by choking. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

The defendant informed the court the footage were simply “sexual encounters” and rejected it was assault. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not assault. He told the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the home, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” Dogan told the court. “I continued because he reassured me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to injure that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was cheered upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters gathered to stand with her, said to the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you raped me? It is illegal to rape an incapacitated woman. How could I have give you consent? Never.”

The victim, 72, became an global icon after she waived her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

State's Argument

Sie, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s failure to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is maybe in the midst of that, possibly motivated by the collective awareness spurred by the revelation of your ordeal.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how societal tolerance was still widespread in society as part of “outdated” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor addressed Dogan: “For as much as you reject it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole sordid societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five relocated to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The evidence indicated that his father was abusive and that Dogan began smoking cannabis aged ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was caught by police for selling narcotics and his father kicked him out the residence. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the primary guardian for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The court heard his spouse did not know he had regular intimate relations beyond their union. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his stressful life. Dogan had stated to a evaluator that once a year he looked for commercial sex on his special day. His lawyers told the court he had a medical condition caused by the stress of the original case.