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.

Prosecutors say that, for almost a decade, Dominique Pelicot drugged his wife to rape her, alongside dozens of other men he invited to abuse her.

Hundreds of people, mostly women, gathered in cities around France on Saturday in support of Gisele Pelicot, a woman whose husband is on trial, accused of drugging her and recruiting dozens of strangers to rape her over nearly a decade in a case that has shocked the nation.