The Indecency of Denial: Inside the French Mass Rape Case That Shattered a Nation
Dominique Pelicot says Husamettin Dogan’s attempt to overturn the conviction in the mass rape case is indecent’
In a courtroom in Nîmes, southern France, one of the darkest chapters in the nation’s modern criminal history resurfaced this week. The case, already notorious for its brutality and scale, has once again forced France — and the world — to confront the disturbing realities of sexual violence, complicity, and denial.
At the center stands Gisèle Pelicot, a 72-year-old woman who endured nearly a decade of unimaginable horror. Between 2011 and 2020, her then-husband, Dominique Pelicot, drugged her repeatedly and invited dozens of men — strangers from the internet — to rape her while she was unconscious in their home in Mazan, a quiet village in Provence.
Gisèle’s courage in waiving her right to anonymity last year turned her into an international symbol of defiance and survival. She has since become a rallying figure for women across Europe who have suffered sexual violence but remain unheard or disbelieved.
But this week, the court heard from another man — Husamettin Dogan, 44, a married father and one of the 51 men convicted in the case. He was sentenced to nine years in prison for rape but is now attempting to overturn that conviction, claiming he “never intended to rape that lady.”
That assertion — and the audacity behind it — has stunned observers and angered many in France’s growing women’s rights movement.
A Chilling Testimony from the Orchestrator
Testifying via a secure witness box, Dominique Pelicot — now 73 and serving a 20-year prison sentence — dismantled Dogan’s defense entirely. The man who masterminded the years-long series of assaults made one thing abundantly clear: everyone who came to his house knew exactly what they were doing.
“I told him clearly that I drugged my wife,” Pelicot said calmly, recounting his first phone call with Dogan. “I said I was looking for someone to abuse her after I had put her to sleep without her knowledge. He had that information from the start.”
For nearly a decade, Pelicot crushed sleeping tablets and anti-anxiety medication into his wife’s meals, waiting until she lost consciousness before inviting men he met online — often via chatrooms titled “against her knowledge” — to take turns raping her. He filmed many of the assaults, preserving hours of footage that would later be used to convict him and dozens of others.
“They all knew,” he told the court. “They all came with the same intention. I always said she was sedated.”
The Night of June 2019
In June 2019, Dogan drove nearly an hour to reach the Pelicot home after lying to his wife about where he was going. According to Dominique, he even called for directions when he got lost.
When Dogan arrived, Pelicot says he gave him detailed instructions:
“No tobacco, no scent, wash your hands, no violence. It would be filmed. And don’t wake her,” he told him.
Gisèle lay motionless on the bed — drugged, silent, defenseless.
Asked by the judge whether Dogan appeared disturbed by her condition, Dominique replied coldly:
“No. It suited him.”
The assault lasted around two hours. Dominique described Dogan as taking “pleasure in the situation,” even asking him to assist in positioning Gisèle’s body for the camera.
The Attempt to Rewrite Reality
Dogan’s appeal rests on the claim that he believed the encounter was consensual — a “game” between husband and wife. Dominique Pelicot dismissed that outright.
“No, I never said that,” he told the court.
For Gisèle, who sat quietly in the courtroom beside her youngest son Florian, the words “game” or “misunderstanding” cut like knives. There was no misunderstanding. There was only deliberate cruelty, carried out repeatedly, with her body as the battleground.
Dominique Pelicot called Dogan’s appeal “indecent”, a sentiment echoed by many watching the trial. The court, he implied, should not allow the convicted men to rewrite history to cleanse themselves of guilt.
A National Reckoning
France has been forced to confront the cultural and systemic enablers of such violence — from online platforms that allowed predators to organize in the shadows, to societal tendencies to doubt or silence victims, especially women of a certain age.
Gisèle’s case is not just a story of a monstrous husband and complicit strangers. It is a story about what happens when the value of a woman’s consent — and her humanity — is erased altogether.
Her decision to come forward, to reclaim her name and her dignity, has transformed her from a victim into a symbol of resistance. She now stands as proof that silence does not equal consent — and that truth, though painful, can still shatter the structures that protect abusers.
The Fight for Justice Continues
As the trial continues through Thursday, Gisèle Pelicot remains steadfast. Those who know her describe her as serene yet unbreakable — a woman who, after enduring the unthinkable, now demands that the world face it too.
For many across France, this appeal is not merely a legal proceeding; it’s a test of collective conscience. Will society allow men like Dogan to hide behind the pretense of ignorance, or will it stand with the woman whose strength exposes the depravity of their excuses?
In that courtroom in Nîmes, one truth hangs over every word: what was done to Gisèle Pelicot was not a misunderstanding, nor a game — it was evil, organized and deliberate.
Bless her courage and moxie. We can all learn from this cruel tragedy. It’s simple - Believe the women!