The Frenchman who admitted Monday to hiring dozens of strangers to rape his heavily sedated wife asked his family for forgiveness and praised his now-ex-spouse’s courage during his trial.

“I would like to begin by praising the courage of my ex-wife,” Gisele Pelicot, her ex-husband Dominique Pelicot, said in his closing statement to the court before sentencing later in the week.

“I regret what I did and caused pain to my family… I ask for their forgiveness,” he said, calling on the family to “accept my apology.”

In a trial that shocked the country, 72-year-old Dominique Pelicot has admitted drugging his then-wife Gisele Pelicot for nearly a decade so that he and strangers he recruited online could rape her.

Gisele Pelicot, 72, has become a feminist hero at home and abroad because she refused to be ashamed and face her attackers in court.

In addition to her ex-husband, 50 other men between the ages of 27 and 74 are on trial, including one who did not abuse her but rather raped his own wife with Dominique Pelicot’s help.

Dominique Pelicot sat in the glass defendant’s box and reiterated that he had told “the whole truth” since the trial began on September 2 in the southern French city of Avignon.

He also thanked the court for allowing him to remain seated in a special chair due to his fragile health, which “could have been interpreted as casualness” but was not the case, he added.

He added that “I’ve been called names many times” but “I’d rather be forgotten” and said he feels an “inner shame.”

“I can tell my whole family I love them,” he said.

He turned to the five judges who will deliver the verdict and said: “Here we go, you have the rest of my life in your hands.”

The verdict for him and the other defendants is expected on Thursday.

On November 25, prosecutors asked for the maximum possible sentence – 20 years behind bars – against him for aggravated rape.

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