Dominique Pelicot invited men to rape his wife, whom he had drugged. The French media call them “Mr. Every Man” because they come from such ordinary backgrounds.

A Town on Trial' will look at Ms Pelicot, a 72-year-old woman drugged by her former husband and abused for a decade by at least 70 strangers he had recruited online.

Public prosecutor Laure Chabaud told the packed courthouse in Avignon, southern France, on Monday that the sentence would be “long” but “not enough considering the serious nature of these acts.”