The accused Some of the 50 men on trial alongside Dominique Pelicot

The 50 men accused of rape and assault alongside Dominique Pelicot are aged between 26 and 74.

- Angelique Chrisafis

They include a nurse, a journalist, a prison warden, a local councillor, a soldier, lorry drivers and farm workers. Most lived in southeastern France within a 40-mile radius of the village of Mazan, where the Pelicots lived.

Some of the accused men have admitted rape but said they did not set out with this intention, and have apologised in court to Gisèle Pelicot, 72. Others have denied the charge of rape, saying they believed they were taking part in a game by the couple. Here are profiles of some of the men who have appeared in court so far.

Thierry Po, 61

A refrigeration specialist and father of three from Bouches-du-Rhône in southern France, Po is also charged with possession of hundreds of child abuse images found on a USB stick after his arrest. He admits those charges but denies raping Gisèle Pelicot on 21 August 2020.

He said he had not seen anything abnormal about the night he went to the Pelicots' home, believing he was meeting a couple. "I always thought Mrs Pelicot would wake up," he said. "She wasn't cold, she wasn't dead, her skin was soft."

He said he had not sought Gisèle Pelicot's consent because he had lots of experience of encounters with couples when it was mostly the man who gave consent for the woman. He said he had had three "major" previous experiences where a husband had invited him to have sex with a wife and "she'll be asleep, she doesn't want to know, we'll film it". In one case, the woman had woken up. In two cases, he had left without seeing the women's faces. He said he couldn't tell if those women had been asleep or not.

He told the court: "After I leave prison, I'd like to create an association to get men like me to understand that consent is important. I'd go to swingers' clubs and say: "Don't forget to get consent!"

Dominique D, 45