A man who appealed a rape conviction in Bellicut has been jailed for a longer period

A court in southern France has increased the prison term by one year for the only man to appeal his conviction for the rape of Giselle Bellico.

The 72-year-old retired grandmother was drugged unconscious by her then-husband Dominic for more than a decade, and raped by dozens of men he recruited online.

Husemettin Dogan, 44, has said he is innocent, despite video footage shown in court of him penetrating a motionless Giselle Bellicot.

But the Court of Appeal in Nimes rejected his argument and extended his original prison term from nine years to 10 years. He was convicted of aggravated rape last December, during a trial in which 50 other men were convicted.

Prosecutor Dominique Sy had asked the court to impose a 12-year prison sentence on Duggan, who he said was himself a victim of Dominique Bellicot’s “trap.” The prosecutor told the court that Dogan was “unwilling to take responsibility” for the “massive act of destruction inflicted on a woman” that deprived her of her humanity.

Although Dogan was in pre-trial detention before last year’s trial, he has not spent any time in prison since then.

The police were able to track down the men who raped Giselle due to videos taken by Dominique Bellicot during the rapes.

Of the 51 men who received prison sentences, 17 initially lodged appeals to have them withdrawn shortly after.

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

Like several other men convicted last December, Duggan’s defense was that he could not be guilty of rape because he did not realize that her husband had drugged her against her will.

The proceedings in Nîmes were a retrial but, unlike the initial trial last December, this case was decided by a jury 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 Giselle can be heard snoring and showing no reaction despite the abuse she had been subjected to.

However, Duggan again denied any intention to rape her despite admitting that she was clearly a victim of her husband.

“I have performed a sexual act, and I have never raped anyone,” he said. “For me, rape means forcing someone, or restraining someone, I don’t know… I’m a victim.”

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

In an attempt to put the blame on Dominique Bellicot, Duggan also said that while he had “suspicions” at one point that something about the situation wasn’t quite right, Bellicut reassured him. “This man is a manipulator,” he said.

Bellicott – who was present in court as a witness – denied that he had ever pretended that his wife would not be unconscious.

All the men he recruited in the chat rooms “were told she would be drugged,” Bellicot said, adding that he explicitly told Duggan he was looking for “someone to assault my sleeping wife without her knowledge.”

Giselle Bellico’s decision to open the original trial to the public and media attracted global attention to her story – but once the verdicts were in, she returned to her private life.

This week was the first time she had been seen in public since then.

As she stood up on Wednesday, she recalled the unexplained neurological symptoms and memory loss she had suffered for months, not realizing they were side effects of the medications Bellicoat had provided her with.

She confirmed once again that she had no knowledge of what her husband had done to her.

“The first time I saw (Duggan’s) face was when I watched videos of him raping me,” she said. “They are forever etched in my memory.”

“The first time, this man would never admit that he had raped me. But I thought over the course of a year he had gained some reflection,” she said.

Addressing Dogan, she added: “You do not understand that this was rape. When will you admit that it is a crime? I am ashamed of you.”

She also addressed the devastation her family has suffered since the trial.

Her daughter, Caroline Darian, asserts that she was also drugged and abused by her father after photos showing her unconscious were found on Bellicot’s computer.

Ms Darian has since spoken of feeling unsupported by her mother. The two are reportedly no longer in contact and Ms Darian was not in court with Gisele this week.

“My family is trying to rebuild themselves as hard as they can,” Giselle said. “I hope that Caroline finds the answers she is looking for. I hope that one day we can find each other again.”

She also asked to stop referring to her as an icon. “I am an ordinary woman who dared to open her trial,” she said. “I became an icon against my will.”

As in the original trial, Gisele ended her statement by thinking about other rape victims – most of whom did not have the wealth of evidence that she had to bring her attackers to court.

“I want to tell them to never be ashamed of what happened to us, because it is not their fault,” she said.