On Sept 2, a discreet, camera-shy pensioner with a red bob and dark glasses walked tentatively into the Vaucluse criminal court in Avignon, southern France.

Little did Gisèle Pelicot or the rest of France know that in the course of the next three and a half months, her plight would trigger global soul-searching about rape culture and consent. It would also lay bare a family drama that is scarcely believable even in the retelling.

On Thursday, her husband of 50 years was found guilty of all charges.

Looking back at the trial, it is easy to see why prosecutors criticised French law for being unable to keep him in for a longer period given “the seriousness of the acts that were committed and repeated”.

Prosecutors had asked for the other 50 defendants to receive terms of between four to 18 years.

When the case opened in September, what initially struck a chord was why a “perfect, loving, attentive and caring” (in Ms Pelicot’s words) middle-class husband secretly drugged his wife into “chemical submission” by mixing anti-anxiety drugs into her mashed potato, raspberry ice cream and rosé.

Dominique Pelicot would then invite scores of men met on an online chat room called “without her knowledge” to rape her 200 times in her own home over a decade without raising suspicions from his wife or other family members.