Man Appeals Conviction In Gisèle Pelicot Case, Claims He 'Never Intended' To Rape Her

Gisèle Peliot returned to court in France on Monday, 10 months after a mass trial in which 51 men were convicted for rape. One of those 51, had appealed the guilty verdict, seeking to overturn his conviction for raping Pelicot when she had been drugged unconscious by her husband has told a court he “never intended” to rape her, The Guardian reported. 

Husamettin Dogan, 44, was asked by the judge if he denied the charges to which he said: “I never intended to do so … I am here because I never wanted to rape this lady, whom I respect.” He said he accepted he had had sexual contact with Pelicot but said: “I never knew she was drugged.”

The appeal trial is being held before the Court of Appeal in Nîmes, in the south of France. The verdict will be decided by three judges and a nine-person jury.

Pelicot, 72, has become an international feminist icon after she waived her right to anonymity during the trial. During the appeal, she again waived her right to anonymity. Pelicot had survived almost a decade of rape involving several me. She was drugged by her then husband who invited people he had met in online chatrooms to come to their home to abuse her while she was unconscious in her own bed.

Dogan, a former construction worker in his forties, was sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of aggravated rape. 

His lawyer Sylvie Menvielle said her client believed he was participating in a libertine threesome for which he didn't know at the time Gisele Pelicot had not given her consent, so he could not accept the guilty verdict.

"He was facing someone who was acting with extraordinary manipulation and perversity," Menvielle told Reuters, referring to Dominique Pelicot (Gisèle’s husband).