‘I am a rapist,’ Frenchman says in mass rape trial

The main defendant in a mass rape trial that has shocked France said Tuesday that he was a "rapist" and claimed that 50 other co-defendants he allegedly recruited to rape his then-wife while she was drugged were also guilty.

"I am a rapist like the others in this room. They all knew; they cannot say otherwise," 71-year-old Dominique Pelicot said in his first testimony to the court since the trial opened on September 2.

He described his ex-wife, 71-year-old Gisele Pelicot, as "not deserving" of the abuse.

AFP