Husband of the century
A man has gone on trial in France for repeatedly drugging and raping his wife as well as arranging for dozens of other men to rape her. The defendant, named as 71-year-old Dominique P, is accused of recruiting strangers online to come to his home and sexually assault the victim for over a decade.
…
Police identified at least 92 rapes committed by 72 men. Fifty were identified and charged and are standing trial alongside the husband.
The victim, now 72, only learnt of the abuse in 2020 after being informed by police. The trial will be “a horrible ordeal” for her, said her lawyer Antoine Camus, as it will be the first time she sees video evidence of the abuse. “For the first time, she will have to live through the rapes that she endured over 10 years,” he told AFP news agency.
Uh yes, that will be a horrible ordeal.
Dominique P was investigated by police after an incident in September 2020, when a security guard caught him secretly filming under the skirts of three women in a shopping centre.
He seems like a really good guy.
To my knowledge, rape is about lust, for both 1. sexual satisfaction and 2. power. It is nearly always a crime committed by males and although the victims are mainly females of various ages, sometimes they are males of the age and build that renders them incapable of resisting.
Punishment of rapists caught during or after the commission of their crime and subsequently found guilty by a court is IMHO a bit tricky, because if it is too severe it gives the perp an incentive to murder his victim at crime’s end; silencing her for all time; though it is hard to find stats on this double crime.
Arguably, the victim could be re-empowered to some extent by bringing back the lash: let an expert 3rd party give the perp a flogging, and give the perp’s victim the power to call a halt to it when she (or less likely, he) is satisfied that it has gone on long enough. Then at least to some extent, the punishment will fit the crime.
https://daily.jstor.org/should-punishment-fit-the-crime/
My first thought was, why are they making her see those videos?, but then I read the article and it seems she’s attending the trial voluntarily. If the accused has any sense of decency or shame left (doubtful), he should plead guilty and not make her sit through that.