Two defendants in a mass rape trial that has shocked France on Wednesday reluctantly admitted they had raped a man's heavily sedated wife as they had not sought her consent.

One of more than 50 men accused of raping Frenchwoman Gisele Pelicot in a mass rape case that has shocked the world told her in court on Thursday that he was sorry for what he did.

I maintain that, along with the other men here, I am a rapist,″ Dominique Pélicot told the court. “They knew everything. They can’t say otherwise.”

Frenchman Jean-Pierre Marechal has told a court that Dominique Pelicot supplied him with tranquilisers and convinced him to abuse his own wife.

Dominique Pelicot admitted to drugging his wife and recruiting dozens of strangers to rape her over nearly a decade, begging for his family's forgiveness, as he told a French court on Tuesday: "I am a rapist.

STORY: Gisele Pelicot, the French woman who was drugged and raped by dozens of men recruited by her husband, took the stand on Wednesday in a case that has shocked the world.“These men are degenerates,

Another man involved in the French rape trial that has shocked people around the world has admitted to drugging and raping his own wife, which legal and sociological experts say highlights the problematic and pervasive attitude that a husband owns his wife — and her body.

An associate of Frenchman Dominique Pelicot, who for a nearly a decade drugged his wife and invited dozens of men to rape her, admitted to copycat abuse of his own partner on Wednesday, blaming his mentor and a troubled childhood.

Gisele Pelicot, who was drugged and raped by dozens of men recruited by her husband, said on Wednesday "forgiveness does not exist," rejecting claims by him and one of his chief accomplices that they regretted harming the women they loved.

Jean-Pierre Marechal, 63, told the French courtroom that Dominique Pélicot supplied the tranquilizers and acted as a mentor to him.

Dominique Pelicot, 73, admitted to having drugged his wife and invited dozens of men to rape her while she was unconscious and revealed he also raped another man's wife