A Frenchman was charged* Wednesday after confessing to raping and sexually assaulting "around forty" women in a series of attacks since the 1990s, reports the Daily Nation.
The married 57-year-old father was arrested Monday after police used his number plates to connect him with the rape of a woman last week across the border in Belgium.
DNA evidence then matched him to that found on several rape victims.
The man, who is from the northern French town of Pont-sur-Sambre near the Belgian border, confessed under police questioning to attacks on women dating back decades.
"He estimates the number of victims at around forty," Jean-Philippe Vicentini, prosecutor in nearby Valenciennes, told reporters.
He was arrested in connection with an investigation opened in 1996 into attacks on 19 women and underage girls, the prosecutor said.
Vicentini said the man always used the same method to prey on his victims.
"The women were attacked from behind, very early in the morning," he said.
Read more of this AFP report published by the Daily Nation.
*Editor's note: Under a change to the French legal system introduced in 1993, a magistrate can decide a suspect should be 'placed under investigation' (mis en examen), which is a status one step short of being charged (inculpé), if there is 'serious or concordant' evidence that they committed a crime. Some English-language media describe this status, peculiar to French criminal law, as that of being charged. In fact, it is only at the end of an investigation that a decision can be made to bring charges, in which case the accused is automatically sent for trial.