Man who appealed Pelicot rape conviction handed longer jail term

A court in southern France has increased by a year the jail term of the only man who challenged his conviction for raping Gisèle Pelicot.

The 72-year-old retired grandmother was drugged unconscious by her then-husband Dominique for over a decade and raped by dozens of men he recruited on the internet.

Husamettin Dogan, 44, had argued he was innocent, despite graphic video footage shown in court of him penetrating a motionless Gisèle Pelicot.

But the court of appeal in Nîmes rejected his argument and extended his original nine-year jail term to 10 years. He was convicted of aggravated rape last December, during a trial in which 50 other men were convicted.

Prosecutors had asked the court to impose a 12-year term on Dogan, who said he himself had been a victim, “trapped” by Dominique Pelicot.

Although Dogan did spent time in pre-trial detention ahead of last year’s trial, he has not spent time in jail since.

Police were able to track down the men who raped Gisèle because of the videos that Dominique Pelicot filmed during the rapes.

Of the 51 men handed jail terms, 17 initially lodged appeals only to withdraw them soon after.

Husamettin Dogan – a Turkish-born married father – was the only one who decided to take his appeal to court.

Like many of the other men convicted last December, Dogan’s defence was that he could not be guilty of raping Gisèle because he did not realise she had been drugged by her husband against her will.

Proceedings in Nîmes were effectively a retrial but, unlike the initial trial last December, this case was judged by a jury made up of nine members of the public and three professional judges.

Evidence from the first trial was shown again, including videos of the rapes in which an unconscious Gisèle could be heard snoring and having no reaction despite the abuse she was subjected to.

Nevertheless, Dogan again denied any intention to rape her even though he acknowledged she was clearly a victim of her husband.

“I performed a sexual act, I never raped anyone,” he said. “For me, rape means forcing someone, tying them up, I don’t know… I am a victim.”

Gisèle Pelicot told the court this week “I am the only victim”, denying she had ever given her consent.

In an attempt to shift the blame on to Dominique Pelicot, Dogan also said that while at one point he had “suspicions” that something about the situation was not quite right, Pelicot had put him at ease. “This guy is a manipulator,” he said.

Pelicot – who was present in court as a witness – denied he had ever pretended his wife would be anything but unconscious.

All the men he recruited on chatrooms “were told she would be drugged”, Pelicot said, adding he had explicitly told Dogan he was looking for “someone to abuse my sleeping wife without her knowledge”.