The defendant, a 44-year-old supermarket employee and father of three, is among 50 men charged over the decade-long mass rape of Gisele Pelicot

Pelicot has become a symbol of the fight against sexual violence in France, and she’s seen as a hero to many victims for waiving her anonymity, letting the trial be public and appearing openly before the media. She has attended every day of the trial, where she has sat in a room full of men accused of raping her.

PARIS (Reuters) -Hundreds of people, mostly women, gathered in cities across France on Saturday in support of Gisele Pelicot whose husband is on trial, accused of drugging her and recruiting dozens of strangers to rape her in a case that has shocked the nation.