A French pensioner went on trial in the southern city of France's Avignon on September 2 for allegedly allowing scores of strangers to rape his wife after he drugged her, AFP reported.
In addition, 50 men—recruited online—are also being tried alongside the main suspect, Dominique P, a former employee at France's state-owned power utility company EDF.
According to police, a total of 92 rapes were committed by 72 men, 51 of whom were identified. The report also states that all the accused – aged between 26 and 74 – allegedly raped the 72-year-old woman for almost a decade who was so heavily sedated she was not aware of the abuse.
The victim's lawyer, Stephane Babonneau, mentioned that the presiding judge, Roger Arata, announced that all hearings would be public, granting the woman her wish for "complete publicity until the end" of the court case.
“She wants to raise awareness, as widely as possible, of what happened to her so that events like these never happen again,” Babonneau said.
While another of her attorneys, Antoine Camus, said the trial would nonetheless be “a horrible ordeal” for her.
“For the first time, she will have to live through the rapes that she endured over 10 years,” he told AFP.
The victim arrived at the court supported by her three children and didn't want a trial behind closed doors as she believed it was what her attackers would have wanted.
Dominique P, who claimed he was raped by a male nurse when he was nine, was ready to face “his family and his wife”, his lawyer Beatrice Zavarro told AFP on Monday.
He was also charged with a 1991 murder and rape and an attempted rape in 1999, to which he admitted after DNA testing. The trial is expected to last until December 20.
With agency inputs.
