‘I felt like I was dying inside’: Man forces ex-lover to have sex with hundreds of men, gets 25 years in jail

A French court has sentenced former bank manager Guillaume Bucci to 25 years in prison for the torture and rape of his former partner over seven years, during which he forced her to have sex with hundreds of men he recruited online. The survivor, identified as 42-year-old mother of four Laetitia R, told the court that Bucci subjected her to years of abuse disguised as sadomasochistic “games”, manipulating and threatening her into compliance.

According to her testimony, the abuse began escalating in 2015 when Bucci allegedly ordered her, on Christmas Eve, to go to a motorway service station and “offer herself to strangers” while he listened over the phone. Laetitia told the court that Bucci later forced her into prostitution, arranging encounters with “friends, colleagues, and strangers” and demanding she keep a list of the men involved. She said she “stopped counting at 487 men”.

Rejecting Bucci’s request for a closed-door trial, Laetitia opted for public proceedings after drawing inspiration from Gisele Pelicot, the French woman whose public rape trial turned her into a feminist icon after her husband and dozens of others were convicted of drugging and raping her. Unlike in the Pelicot case, prosecutors said Bucci deliberately kept Laetitia conscious during the assaults.

During the trial, Laetitia described living in “constant fear” between 2015 and 2022, saying the abuse amounted to “pure and simple violence”. She accused Bucci of treating her like a “slave” and forcing her into degrading acts, including drinking his urine and licking public toilets. She also testified that in 2017, just a day after being discharged from the hospital following the birth of their daughter, she was forced to perform a sex act on a truck driver.

“I felt like I was dying inside,” Laetitia told the court through tears. “With each practice imposed, there was a part of me that broke permanently.” Bucci admitted to acts including strangulation, burning and bestiality, but claimed they were “consensual sexual games in the context of their intimate relationship”. He argued that he “did not think he was hurting her”, maintaining that his former partner had consented.

However, prosecutors presented text and voice messages in which Bucci allegedly threatened to kill her if she disobeyed him, arguing this proved she acted under duress. Bucci also admitted to pressuring Laetitia into prostitution. Prosecutors had sought a life sentence, warning of a serious “risk of reoffending against another woman”. The court ultimately sentenced Bucci to 25 years in prison and ruled that he must serve at least two-thirds of the sentence before becoming eligible for parole.