Overview
- A jury at the Cour d’assises in Digne‑les‑Bains convicted Guillaume Bucci and on Saturday sentenced him to 25 years in prison with a two‑thirds period of security.
- Prosecutors presented hundreds of messages and audio‑video files and argued those materials showed daily degrading practices, threats with weapons and organised prostitution.
- The victim, Laëtitia R., testified that the abuse ran from 2015 to 2022, that she was forced into prostitution and that she stopped counting clients at about 487 men.
- The defence said the acts were consensual within a sadomasochistic relationship, while psychiatric experts described Bucci’s behaviour as a unilateral, domination‑based sadism and the prosecutor had sought life imprisonment citing a risk of reoffending.
- The public trial, supported by feminist groups and inspired in part by Gisèle Pélicot’s case, sharpens debate in France over how courts distinguish consensual BDSM from coercive sexual violence and could influence future prosecutions and policy.