The first day Gisèle Pelicot walked up the steps of the courthouse in Avignon in September 2024, she was an anonymous retired grandmother. Within weeks, this diminutive 72-year-old - the victim at the centre of the largest rape trial in French history, involving 51 men including her husband - had become a feminist icon. She was last seen in public when the verdicts - all guilty - were handed down in December. By then, crowds of supporters were chanting her name.
On Monday Gisèle Pelicot returns to court, this time in Nîmes, for the appeal of the only one of the 51 defendants to challenge his sentence: Husamettin Dogan, 44, a married father of one. Between September and December last year, Gisèle's bleak story travelled the world. For over a decade, she had been drugged unconscious by her husband Dominique and raped by dozens of men he had recruited on internet chat rooms.
Dominique Pelicot filmed the assaults and neatly catalogued them on a hard disk, which allowed investigators to track down the majority of the individuals involved. Around 20 could not be identified and remain at large. After a trial lasting 16 weeks, 46 men were found guilty of rape, two of attempted rape and two of sexual assault. Dominique Pelicot was handed the maximum jail sentence of 20 years.
Husamettin Dogan's appeal next week will, in effect, be a retrial. The videos of Gisèle's rape will be shown in court again, and Pelicot will be present – this time, though, only as a witness. While she is not obliged to, Gisèle too will attend the proceedings.
Everyone would have understood if she hadn't come because, well, she is trying to resume a normal life, one of her lawyers said. But she feels she needs to be there and has a responsibility to be there until the end of the proceedings.
In December, Dogan was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to nine years in prison. Due to health reasons he was handed a deferred custody warrant and is not currently in jail. He is reportedly appealing both the guilty verdict and the length of his sentence.
As was the case for many of the other 51 men, Dogan's defence hinged on the argument he could not be guilty of raping Gisèle because he had not realised she would be unconscious. Pelicot rejected this argument, saying he had made it abundantly clear to the men he recruited online that his wife would be drugged. In his statement to the court last year Dogan did admit telling Pelicot that his wife 'looked dead'. Still, he vehemently pushed back against the accusations levelled at him. 'I don't accept being labelled a rapist,' he protested. 'It's too heavy a burden for me to carry.'
Although 16 other defendants also initially lodged appeals, Dogan was the only one who has pushed ahead with it. Unlike the first trial, Dogan's appeal will be judged by a jury made up of nine members of the public who will decide on both his conviction and the length of his jail term.
Gisèle Pelicot's public visibility is not the only shift since last year. When proceedings started in September 2024, she was supported by her three adult children – Caroline, David and Florian. Now, the tight-knit family unit that entered the Avignon tribunal last September is no more. David Pelicot and Caroline Darian have called themselves the 'forgotten victims' of the trial and next week in Nîmes, Gisèle will only be accompanied by Florian, the youngest of her children.
At the heart of the family split is a moment that shook the court last November, when Gisèle was asked about photos found on Pelicot's computer showing their semi-naked daughter Caroline, apparently asleep and wearing unfamiliar underwear. Caroline has always insisted the photos prove her father drugged and assaulted her too – and in March pressed charges against him. He has always denied sexually assaulting his daughter. Caroline recalled how, up on the stand, Gisèle refused to address the accusations of incest against her husband. It's as if the ground opened up underneath my feet. Her silence spoke volumes. It marked a point of no-return.
In the same way last year's trial reverberated far beyond the courtroom in Avignon, sparking urgent conversations nationwide over rape, consent and gender violence, Dominique Pelicot's crimes rippled through the family, tearing it apart. Images taken on the opening day of the trial in September 2024 highlight the seismic changes that have engulfed the Pelicots in the past 13 months.
On Monday Gisèle Pelicot returns to court, this time in Nîmes, for the appeal of the only one of the 51 defendants to challenge his sentence: Husamettin Dogan, 44, a married father of one. Between September and December last year, Gisèle's bleak story travelled the world. For over a decade, she had been drugged unconscious by her husband Dominique and raped by dozens of men he had recruited on internet chat rooms.
Dominique Pelicot filmed the assaults and neatly catalogued them on a hard disk, which allowed investigators to track down the majority of the individuals involved. Around 20 could not be identified and remain at large. After a trial lasting 16 weeks, 46 men were found guilty of rape, two of attempted rape and two of sexual assault. Dominique Pelicot was handed the maximum jail sentence of 20 years.
Husamettin Dogan's appeal next week will, in effect, be a retrial. The videos of Gisèle's rape will be shown in court again, and Pelicot will be present – this time, though, only as a witness. While she is not obliged to, Gisèle too will attend the proceedings.
Everyone would have understood if she hadn't come because, well, she is trying to resume a normal life, one of her lawyers said. But she feels she needs to be there and has a responsibility to be there until the end of the proceedings.
In December, Dogan was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to nine years in prison. Due to health reasons he was handed a deferred custody warrant and is not currently in jail. He is reportedly appealing both the guilty verdict and the length of his sentence.
As was the case for many of the other 51 men, Dogan's defence hinged on the argument he could not be guilty of raping Gisèle because he had not realised she would be unconscious. Pelicot rejected this argument, saying he had made it abundantly clear to the men he recruited online that his wife would be drugged. In his statement to the court last year Dogan did admit telling Pelicot that his wife 'looked dead'. Still, he vehemently pushed back against the accusations levelled at him. 'I don't accept being labelled a rapist,' he protested. 'It's too heavy a burden for me to carry.'
Although 16 other defendants also initially lodged appeals, Dogan was the only one who has pushed ahead with it. Unlike the first trial, Dogan's appeal will be judged by a jury made up of nine members of the public who will decide on both his conviction and the length of his jail term.
Gisèle Pelicot's public visibility is not the only shift since last year. When proceedings started in September 2024, she was supported by her three adult children – Caroline, David and Florian. Now, the tight-knit family unit that entered the Avignon tribunal last September is no more. David Pelicot and Caroline Darian have called themselves the 'forgotten victims' of the trial and next week in Nîmes, Gisèle will only be accompanied by Florian, the youngest of her children.
At the heart of the family split is a moment that shook the court last November, when Gisèle was asked about photos found on Pelicot's computer showing their semi-naked daughter Caroline, apparently asleep and wearing unfamiliar underwear. Caroline has always insisted the photos prove her father drugged and assaulted her too – and in March pressed charges against him. He has always denied sexually assaulting his daughter. Caroline recalled how, up on the stand, Gisèle refused to address the accusations of incest against her husband. It's as if the ground opened up underneath my feet. Her silence spoke volumes. It marked a point of no-return.
In the same way last year's trial reverberated far beyond the courtroom in Avignon, sparking urgent conversations nationwide over rape, consent and gender violence, Dominique Pelicot's crimes rippled through the family, tearing it apart. Images taken on the opening day of the trial in September 2024 highlight the seismic changes that have engulfed the Pelicots in the past 13 months.
