PARIS — The public prosecutor’s office has demanded the maximum prison sentence of 20 years for the main defendant in the rape trial in the French city of Avignon because he had drugged and abused his wife for years and had her assaulted by strangers.

“Twenty years of a life is not nothing,” Public Prosecutor Laure Chabaud said on Monday. “It is both a lot and too little given the seriousness of the offences that were committed and repeated.”

Dominique Pelicot has confessed to the offences against his then wife Gisèle in court.

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, estimates that she was raped around 200 times over a period of almost 10 years. As well as her ex-husband, who drugged her, 50 men are on trial – most of them also accused of aggravated rape.

Investigators suspect that around a dozen other men were involved in the offences, but they have not been identified.

Public Prosecutor Chabaud noted that Dominique Pelicot himself had admitted in court that he had acted without his wife’s consent in order to subjugate an emancipated woman, according to his statement.

There were no boundaries for him, not even concerning his family members, Chabaud said. Investigators also found naked pictures of his daughter and his daughters-in-law at Dominique Pelicot’s home, which were allegedly taken without their knowledge.

The daughter fears that she was also drugged and abused by her father. The main defendant denied this several times in court.

“We have to question his sincerity,” said Chabaud, stressing that Pelicot must be held fully accountable for his actions.

The senior citizen had been certified as a high criminal risk, he did not have sufficient self-reflection, he lacked empathy, and was stubborn and cold, Chabaud said.

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