After 10 weeks, the mass rape trial that has shocked France is moving on to the final phase of closing statements.
The case focuses on a formerly married couple, Dominique and Gisèle Pelicot, pensioners who are now in their early 70s.
Ms Pelicot’s legal team will give their final statements on Tuesday, and the defence will then follow, ahead of a verdict from a panel of five judges expected on 20 December.
Dominique Pelicot went on trial with 50 other men in the southern city of Avignon in September.
Every chapter of this case has played out in the full glare of publicity because Ms Pelicot has waived her anonymity, making the whole trial open to the media and the public.
In France, it has become known as the Affaire Mazan, after the village near Avignon where the Pelicots lived.
In November 2020, Dominique Pelicot admitted drugging his then-wife for almost a decade and recruiting dozens of men online to rape her in their home when she was unconscious.
Police tracked down his co-accused from thousands of videos they found on Mr Pelicot’s laptop, although they were unable to identify an additional 21 men. Investigators said they have evidence of around 200 rapes carried out between 2011 and 2020.
The majority of the defendants deny the charges of rape, arguing that they cannot be guilty because they did not realise Ms Pelicot was unconscious and therefore did not “know” they were raping her.
That line of defence has sparked a nationwide discussion on whether consent should be added to France’s legal definition of rape, currently defined as “any act of sexual penetration committed against another person by violence, constraint, threat or surprise”.
The trial has also shone a light on the issue of chemical submission – drug-induced sexual assault.