Serial sexual criminals often think like collectors. Dominique Pelicot filmed his drugged wife being sexually assaulted by over 50 men. Retired surgeon Joël Le Scouarnec took notes in computer files on the almost 300 patients he sexually abused. During a search and seizure of evidence under a warrant at Christophe B.'s home last July, French authorities discovered hard drives in his safe. They contained dozens of videos of potential gang rapes, which he often streamed live on Wyylde.com, a swinger website with 7 million users.

On the night of Wednesday, April 9, to Thursday, April 10, the 56-year-old maintenance manager was charged at a court in Bordeaux and placed in pretrail detention for suspicions of rape involving acts of torture and barbarity – a rare charge in such procedures. Alongside him, three other men, drivers, facilitators and participants, were charged and arrested, paving the way for a large-scale sexual violence case. The arrests and charges were first reported by Le Monde and Le Parisien.

Investigators are just beginning to explore Christophe B.'s footage, in which the faces of about 50 potential perpetrators of violence have been identified through facial recognition. In addition to this evidence, five women, all former successive partners of Christophe B., testified to severe abuse during their interviews: Their bodies sometimes bore sexist and "humiliating" insults written in marker, such as "ball drainer." They reported having endured unprotected intercourse with dozens of men, objects or animals in swinger clubs in southwestern France, in the street or in parking lots.

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