French Higher Court Increases Prison Term for Gisele Pelicot Rapist

A defendant was declared guilty on higher court review of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband – and was given his incarceration period extended to a decade.

Higher Court Case

Husamettin Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had contested his first conviction last year, underwent a new trial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of four women and five men, accompanied by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her residence in Provence in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a family man, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, the husband, in an online chatroom named “without her consent”, where the husband was looking for men to come to his home to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a comatose state.

“We hope the court will declare that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that agreement is personal, not given by another,” stated the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is received personally and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Background

The ex-husband, among the most severe sexual predators in recent French history, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year for drugging his spouse and bringing in multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a span of many years of their union.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a notable trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to contest his verdict. He was initially handed a term to 9 years in prison, a sentence increased on Thursday to 10 years.

The chief prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any blame”.

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his village in the region to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was stepping out, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily testify at the hearing, stated to the court that the accused had known his wife had been “incapacitated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.”

The proceedings became a key topic for a broader debate on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to claim he was not guilty and had not committed rape, contending that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the residence, his actions had been permissible.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown recorded footage of the victim's unresponsive form, comatose and snoring in a deep sleep, while a smiling Dogan performed assault on several occasions over a duration of what police said was three and a half hours. The presiding judge said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been incapacitated and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

The defendant stated to the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. 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 manipulated by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused stated to the court. “I carried on because he reassured me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to injure that woman.”

Survivor's Statement

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon leaving court each day by crowds assembled to back her, addressed the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It is unlawful to rape an unaware woman. How could I have give you consent? Never.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an global icon after she gave up her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

State's Argument

The prosecutor, speaking to the victim in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. Society is maybe in the process of that, possibly propelled by the societal understanding brought by the exposure of your ordeal.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

Sie addressed the defendant: “For as much as you reject it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole sordid societal structure that you are supporting.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was originated from Turkey and at the age of five moved to France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The testimony revealed that his father was violent and that the defendant began consuming marijuana at the age of 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was apprehended by authorities for drug trafficking and his father forced him to leave the residence. He spent time in prison for drug dealing in his young adulthood and had worked as a laborer but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a child with special needs, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had regular sexual encounters beyond their union. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his stressful life. Dogan had told a mental health expert that each year he engaged in transactional encounters on his special day. His legal representatives told the court he had a medical condition triggered by the pressure of the first trial.