Campaigners are demanding French rape laws be changed to include the word “consent” after judges handed down sentences in the Gisèle Pelicot case.

They say the case, in which Ms Pelicot’s husband recruited dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged unconscious, proves the current legislation is insufficient.

“France can no longer maintain its legislation as it stands, and must at last clearly integrate the notion of consent into the offence of rape,” said Audrey Darsonville, a criminal law professor.

She said the country was flouting its European obligations by not doing so and faced a string of legal cases on the issue in the coming months.

“France must force the defendant to prove they verified that a plaintiff gave free and informed consent. That’s not currently the case,” she told The Telegraph.

French criminal law defines rape as a penetrative act or oral sex act committed on someone using “violence, coercion, threat or surprise”. It makes no clear mention of the need for a partner’s consent and prosecutors must prove the intention to rape to secure a guilty verdict.