In a case reminiscent of that of France's Gisele Pelicot, the Munich court said the defendant, named only as Zhongyi J., had assaulted his girlfriend while she was unconscious at least seven times.

Zhongyi J. filmed the abuse each time and stored the videos on a hard drive, the court said. In one case, the assault lasted more than three hours.

"The aim in each case was to sedate the victim so heavily that she showed no defensive reactions even when in severe pain," the court statement said.

Zhongyi J. was found guilty of six counts of aggravated rape and two counts of attempted murder.

Before announcing the verdict, judge Markus Koppenleitner said the crimes had shown "contempt for humanity and women on a truly monstrous scale".

"Even experienced criminal investigators were horrified by the extent of the contempt for women evident in the footage," the court said.

Zhongyi J. had drugged the victim with a cocktail of three anaesthetics.

Her breathing had stopped several times during the assaults and it was only by chance that she had survived, the court said.

Zhongyi J. came to Germany in 2023 to study for a master's degree in robotics, a court spokesman told AFP.

The defendant confessed to the crimes during his trial, but "although (he) showed remorse, he had not yet recognised the full gravity of his actions", the court said.

Pelicot became a global symbol in the fight against sexual violence after she waived her right to anonymity during the 2024 trial of her ex-husband and dozens of strangers who raped her while she was unconscious.

Her ordeal has also been invoked in the German case of TV actress Collien Fernandes, 44, who went public about faked pornographic images of her circulating on the internet.

Thousands of Germans have taken to the streets in support Fernandes, spurring a new "#MeToo" moment around online abuse.