Gisèle Pelicot faces rerun of court trauma after one of her rapists demands appeal

Incredulity at convicted man's claim that victim's husband tricked him into raping her, despite evidence

- Kim Willsher

Gisèle Pelicot walked out of court in Avignon last year, after her former husband and 50 men were convicted of raping or abusing her while she was unconscious, hoping to get on with the rest of her life.

On Monday, the woman who forced shame to change sides after insisting the trial be heard in public will return to court for a new ordeal, after one of the men appealed.

Husamettin Dogan, an unemployed builder, has appealed against his conviction and nine-year sentence for aggravated rape despite admitting that Pelicot was so inert when he touched her he thought she was dead.

The lawyer Antoine Camus, who with his colleague Stéphane Babonneau represented Pelicot, 72, at the Avignon trial, said he was incredulous at Dogan's decision.

"He thought she was dead; he penetrated a person who was not in any state to express consent. The only word for that is rape," Camus told The Observer. "We can all see what he did in the videos. Rape is rape."

Dogan, 44, was one of the 50 men recruited by Pelicot's husband, Dominique, from an online chat room entitled "Without their knowledge."

For almost a decade, Dominique, 72, by day an apparently devoted husband, father and grandfather, by night what the psychologists labelled an "ordinary monster", laced his wife's food and drink with a cocktail of drugs that left her unconscious.

He then invited strangers to rape her while he filmed them. At least another 30 men in the videos remain unidentified. The case shook France and the world, and forced a rethink on issues of consent and rape culture.