Dozens of men on trial in France claim they did not realise they were committing rape, accuse the husband of manipulation.

Gisele Pelicot, subjected to mass rape organised by her husband over a decade, has condemned the cowardice of the dozens of men accused of abusing her who claim they did not realise it was rape.

Her husband, Dominique Pelicot, recently admitted he drugged her and invited strangers to their house to rape her while she was unconscious in one of France’s most spectacular criminal trials in recent history.

Most of the 50 other men on trial have said they did not realise they were raping her, did not intend to rape her or put all the blame on her husband, who they said had manipulated them.

“For me, this is the trial of cowardice. There is no other way to describe it,” Gisele Pelicot said on Tuesday, adding that there was no excuse for abusing her when she was unconscious.

Video recorded by her husband and shown in court over the past weeks has repeatedly featured her motionless, sometimes snoring, while the accused abused her.

“When you walk into a bedroom and see a motionless body, at what point [do you decide] not to react,” she said in an address to the accused, many of whom were in the courtroom. “Why did you not leave immediately to report it to the police?”

Gisele Pelicot learned of the abuse only four years ago when police stumbled upon videos and pictures her husband recorded of the abuse he orchestrated.

She told the court she was angry at the accused, not least because any of them could, at any time, have put an end to her ordeal if they had denounced her husband.

“They must take responsibility for their actions. They raped. Rape is rape,” she added.

It is the third time Gisele Pelicot has addressed the court in Avignon in southern France as the trial heads towards delivering its verdicts and sentences around December 20.

Under French law, Gisele Pelicot could have asked for the trial to be held behind closed doors. Instead she asked for it to be held in public, saying she hoped it would help other women speak up and show that victims have nothing to be ashamed of.

“It is time for society to look at this macho, patriarchal society and change the way it looks at rape,” she told the court. She said she would never forgive her husband.

The case has shocked the country and triggered nationwide protests in support of Gisele Pelicot, who has become a symbol of the struggle against sexual violence in France.