A defendant has been found guilty on retrial of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was sedated by her husband – and was given his incarceration period increased to a decade.
Retrial Proceedings
Husamettin Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a retrial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.
A panel of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her home in Provence in the morning of 29 June 2019.
The evidence showed that the accused, a family man, connected with the victim's husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum titled “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was seeking men to visit his house to assault his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a deep sleep.
We expect the jury will say loud and clear that in this society, human rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is personal, not transferred,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is secured personally and not via a representative from a husband.”
Context
The husband, a notorious sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and soliciting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a period of nearly ten years of their marriage.
Fifty other men were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to challenge his conviction. He was first handed a term to 9 years in prison, a sentence enhanced on Thursday to ten years.
The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any accountability”.
Testimony and Proof
Dogan had first sent the husband graphic images and then driven an hour from his village in Provence to assault the victim, after telling his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.
The ex-husband, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily testify at the hearing, told the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I seek someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep unbeknownst to her.”
The trial became a key topic for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to assert he was blameless and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because the victim's husband had invited him into the room, his behavior had been permissible.
The jury in the higher court was shown video evidence of the victim's unresponsive form, sedated and breathing heavily in a deep sleep, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault on several occasions over a timeframe of what investigators stated was 3.5 hours. The judge said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by suffocation. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been unaware and had not agreed.
Accused's Testimony
Dogan stated to the court the videos were simply “sexual encounters” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. He told the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him to the home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused informed the court. “I continued because he convinced me.”
Asked if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to harm that individual.”
Survivor's Statement
Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon leaving court each day by onlookers gathered to stand with her, said to Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is unlawful to rape an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you agreement? Not once.”
Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an global icon after she waived her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”
Prosecutor's Remarks
Sie, turning to the victim in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. The community is maybe in the midst of that, maybe driven by the public consciousness resulting from the exposure of your ordeal.”
Sie said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how rape culture was still common in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”
The prosecutor addressed the defendant: “While you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an complete unpleasant societal structure that you are supporting.”
Personal History
The accused was originated from Turkey and at the age of five moved to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his father was aggressive and that Dogan began smoking cannabis at the age of 10. When Dogan was 17 he was caught by authorities for drug trafficking and his parent evicted him the residence. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his early 20s and had worked as a construction worker but had undergone periods of living on the streets.
He was wed and had a child with special needs, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had regular sexual encounters outside their union. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his stressful life. The defendant had stated to a evaluator that annually he looked for paid sex on his special day. His legal representatives stated to the court he had a medical condition resulting from the anxiety of the first trial.
