The 50 Others Accused in France’s Pelicot Rape Trial

The last of 50 men to be cross-examined in the rape of a drugged and naked Gisèle Pelicot stood before the judges in a white sweater and jeans.

Philippe Leleu: Single, no children, a dedicated weight lifter and professional gardener who, at 62, was nearing retirement when the police came knocking. His mother opened the door — they live beside one another, and since her stroke 10 years ago, they dine together and he spends most nights at her home.

“I never imagined I’d come before a court for him, never, never,” she told the judges recently.

Yet here he was, among the accused, standing in the crowded courtroom in the southern city of Avignon, part of a mass rape trial, now in its 12th week, that has deeply shaken France.

Ms. Pelicot’s ex-husband of 50 years, Dominique Pelicot, has pleaded guilty to drugging her for almost a decade to rape her, and offering her unconscious body up to strangers he met online. Prosecutors on Monday requested the maximum sentence for him: 20 years in prison.

He’s on trial with 50 other men — all but one charged with aggravated rape, attempted rape or sexual assault of Ms. Pelicot. The French media have dubbed them “Monsieur Tout-le-monde” — Mr. Every Man — because of how varied the men are, and how ordinary.

They are short, tall, flabby, lean, clean-shaven, bearded, bald and pony-tailed. All but 14 were employed, in jobs that reflect the spectrum of middle- and working-class rural France: truck drivers, carpenters and trade workers, a prison guard, a nurse, an I.T. expert working for a bank, a local journalist.