‘I stopped counting after 487 men… and with some of them I had to sleep 10 times each. He made me drink his urine, made me lick public toilets.

These are the words of 42 year old Letitia R. K, who was standing in a French court last week. Hands were trembling, eyes were teary, but there was a strange strength in the voice. Standing in the dock in front was his ex-partner Giyom Buchi. The same person who burnt him alive for seven years, stabbed him with a blade, burnt him with a cigarette and handed him over to hundreds of strangers. When Letitia narrated her ordeal in the court, there was silence in the entire court room. 487 is not a statistic, it was the last count of a woman’s breakdown…

‘He told me you were my slave’

According to the report of France24, Letitia met Gioam Bouchi about 11 years ago. Buchi was a manager in a big bank, educated, influential and decent in appearance. Everything seemed good in the beginning, but soon Buchi started molding it as per his wishes. Letitia told the court, ‘He told me that you are my slave. I am your boss. You will have to do whatever I say.

It started in the name of BDSM – light beating, tying hands and feet. Letitia thought that was all. Letitia herself said, ‘He promised that if I didn’t like it, we would stop.’ But Buchi never kept that promise. On the contrary, his brutality increased day by day.

‘Only one night full sleep every ten days, not allowed to wear underwear’

According to the Straits Times report, Buchi took control of every aspect of Leticia’s life. He decided when Letitia would wake up, when she would sleep and what she would wear. She was not even allowed to wear underwear. Permission had to be taken even to go to the bathroom. The most cruel thing – ‘Every ten days, he was allowed to have full sleep only one night.’ The rest of the nights were spent either in torture or with strangers.

Many times Buchi deliberately did not let him go to the bathroom, so that he could not control himself. Letitia told that she had to wet herself there and Butchi was happy to see all this. As disgusting as it sounds, for Letitia this was the daily life of seven years.

‘He cut my back with a knife and blade’

According to the France24 report, Buchi’s brutality was not just mental. The marks of her atrocities are still present on Letitia’s body. She told the court that Buchi used to beat her badly with a belt, cutting board and electric cable. She said, ‘He cut my back with a knife and blade. Bleeding kept flowing, but it didn’t matter to him.

Not only this, Butchi repeatedly burnt her body with his burning cigarette. When Leticia screamed in pain, Butchi would beat her further. He clearly threatened Leticia in hundreds of WhatsApp messages and voice recordings – ‘If you don’t listen to me, I will kill you.’ Letitia said in court, ‘I was sure that if I refused, he would really kill me.’

‘Sent my daughter to a truck driver the very next day after giving birth’

It is about 2017. Letitia had just given birth to her daughter. She had returned home from the hospital, had a small child in her lap and her body was breaking from the pain of delivery. But for a person like Buchi, these things meant nothing. The day after she was released from the hospital, he forced Leticia to have sex with a truck driver.

According to the Straits Times report, when this matter came to light in the court, everyone present there was left in tears. Recalling that day, Letitia said, ‘I felt as if I was dying inside. Every time something was imposed on me, a part of me was broken forever.

‘Not just raped, made me drink urine, made me lick public toilet’

According to The Telegraph, what Buchi did to Leticia would be less than just calling it ‘rape’ or ‘torture’. Letitia told that Buchi made her drink his urine and even made her lick the public toilet. She said: ‘This was not sex – this was horrific violence. He wanted to change me from a human being to an animal.

This is where this case differs from the Pellicote case. Giselle Pellicote’s husband made her unconscious by giving her drugs and then got her raped. Giselle had no clue. But Buchi deliberately kept Leticia completely conscious so that she was aware of what was happening to her every moment. This makes this case even more heinous.

Leticia sold online – ‘with friends, colleagues and strangers’

Butchi not only made Letitia a victim of his lust, but also started ‘selling’ her online. He would visit different websites and forums, talk to strangers and then refer them to Leticia. Leticia told the court, ‘He forced me to sleep with his friends, office colleagues and complete strangers.’

Buchi had ordered her to make a diary, in which she had to write the name and details of every person with whom she slept. Letitia kept that diary and when the count reached 487, she gave up. He said, ‘I had to sleep with some of them 10 times.’ And among the people who came, not a single one could understand or did not want to understand that this woman was doing all this not out of her own free will, but because of someone’s fear.

‘Fear and shame will now change sides’ – impression of Giselle Pellicot

This case is in the headlines of the world today, one of the big reasons for this is Giselle Pellicot. According to BBC report, 72 year old Giselle did something in France which no one had done before. She got her gang rape case heard in open court. His slogan was, ‘They should feel ashamed, not me.’ In December 2024, her husband was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment and Giselle emerged as a feminist icon.

Letitia herself admitted in the court that Giselle’s courage gave her the strength to break her silence. Buchi had requested the court that the trial be conducted behind closed doors, so that the outside world does not know, but Letitia flatly refused. Her lawyer Philippe-Henri Honegger said, ‘Letitia believes that fear and shame should now change sides. After remaining silent for so many years, she does not want to remain silent anymore.

‘I didn’t think I was hurting her’ – Butchi’s disgusting clarification

According to the report of France24, when Buchi had to testify, he confessed to strangulation, burning and even having sex with animals. But everyone was surprised to hear his clarification. She said, ‘These were all consensual sexual games between us… I didn’t feel like I was hurting her.’

Then the prosecution placed Buchi’s WhatsApp messages and voice recording before the court. In those messages, Buchi was clearly telling Leticia – ‘If you do not listen to me, I will kill you.’ Not only this, in a recording Buchi himself is saying in his own voice, ‘I know that she didn’t say no to me just because I scared her.’

After this evidence came to light, all Buchi’s arguments fell flat. The court found him guilty of rape, torture and forced prostitution. The prosecution sought life imprisonment and also said that Buchi would pose a ‘serious danger to other women’ if he was out.

Why is such a big crime and punishment so ‘cheap’?

According to The Times, the court sentenced Buchi to 25 years in prison, and also ordered that he serve at least two-thirds (16-17 years) of his sentence in prison. The reason for this is the law of France. The maximum punishment for aggravated rape there is 20 years. If the victim becomes permanently disabled, it can last up to 30 years. Life imprisonment is given only when the victim dies.

Letitia is seriously disabled today. She herself said, ‘Today I am incontinent (unable to control my stool and urine), I am disabled.’ But he did not die, so the judge’s hands were tied legally.

Another legal complication is that the principle of ‘non-cumulation of sentences’ applies in France. Meaning, if a person has committed multiple crimes, only the most serious crime is punished, all the punishments are not added up.

‘A part of me is broken forever’

Letitia, mother of four children, is alive today, but her life is not the same as before. There are scars on the body, something is broken inside that may never be mended. When 51 year old Buchi comes out of jail after 25 years, he will be 76 years old. But due to parole he can come out even after 16-17 years. This is the truth that irritates people the most that one day a person who has committed so much brutality will again be found under the open sky.