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.

The main defendant in a French mass rape trial spoke on the stand for the first time on Tuesday, admitting to being a 'rapist, like the others in this room.'

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.”