The site, coco.fr, was shut down in June after being linked to more than 23,000 sexual abuse and other cases in France alone, including the rape trial that shocked the country last year.

France on Thursday put under formal investigation the founder of an adult website used to commit sexual offences, including by a French man who recruited dozens of strangers to rape his heavily sedated wife,

Dominique Pelicot, the man convicted of raping his wife and of inviting dozens of others to join him in the abuse, did not appeal. But 17 of the other 50 found guilty did.

France on Jan 9 charged the founder of an adult website used to commit sexual offences, including by a French man who recruited dozens of strangers to rape his heavily sedated wife, prosecutors said.

The founder of the website Dominique Pelicot used to recruit dozens of men to rape his unconscious wife has been charged by French police. Isaac Steidl, a native of France who now has Italian citizenship,