The only man to appeal against his conviction for raping Gisele Pelicot has seen his sentence increased.
Husamettin Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, was the only one to have maintained an appeal after the first trial last year of 51 men, including Pelicot’s husband Dominique Pelicot, in the mass sexual abuse case.
On Thursday he was handed a 10-year prison term after a jury of nine people found him guilty of raping Ms Pelicot in her bedroom in the early hours of June 29, 2019.
A lower court last year sentenced the 44-year-old to a nine-year prison sentence after prosecutors requested 12 years.
Dogan, a married father, made contact with her then husband, in an online chat room where Pelicot was looking to men to come to his house and rape his wife while she was drugged.
Ms Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Nimes on Wednesday that Dogan had raped her and must ‘take responsibility’ for his actions.
An investigator on Tuesday said that images of the abuse found on Dominique Pelicot’s hard drive showed he had stayed at the house for at least ‘three hours and 24 minutes’ – not half an hour as he had claimed.
Footage shown to the court showed him penetrating an inert Gisele Pelicot.
Pictured: Gisele Pelicot arrives at appeal trial for Husamettin Dogan in Nimes with her son Florian Pelicot
Sixteen other men withdrew their appeals after the initial trial, with Husamettin Dogan the only one now attempting to overturn his rape conviction
Dogan avoided a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail, which would have put him on a par with Dominique Pelicot, who abused his wife and recruited dozens of strangers to do the same for almost a decade.
Antoine Camus, one of Gisele Pelicot’s lawyers, argued that Dogan’s sentence should be revised.
‘You don’t touch a sleeping victim,’ he said.
‘We hope that this jury will say loud and clear that in France, human rights are also women’s rights, that you cannot get consent from a husband, and that a sexual act imposed on a sleeping body is a rape,’ he added.
A panel of five judges issued the verdicts against Dominique Pelicot and his 50 co-defendants at the end of the trial last year in the southern city of Avignon.
Public prosecutor Laure Chabaud at the time had urged the judges in all cases to issue sentences that could be a ‘testament for future generations’.
The other 49 men accused of abusing Gisele Pelicot received sentences ranging from three years in jail, including two suspended, to 15 years behind bars for a man who visited the Pelicot home six times.
Another man, who did not assault Gisele Pelicot but repeatedly abused his own wife with Dominique Pelicot’s help, was sentenced to 12 years.
Ms Pelicot on Wednesday called for ‘victims to never be ashamed of what was forced upon them’.
This is a breaking news story. More to follow.
