More than a dozen men were in court in the Indian city of Chennai on Tuesday over allegations that they had repeatedly raped a preteen girl over a period of several months.

The perpetrators were between the ages of 23 and 66 years old, and all worked as elevator operators, security guards or plumbers in her family's apartment complex.

According to prosecutors, the serial assaults began when a 66-year-old elevator operator attacked the girl as she was cycling back to her apartment after school. He is accused of then inviting other men to assault the child in vacant apartments, which they allegedly filmed. The girl was sedated and given drug-laced soft drinks in order to incapacitate her.

Local media reported that the men had threatened the girl with knives and said they would release the videos if she told anyone. However, the child eventually informed her older sister who immediately called the police.

Defendants beaten on court steps

Footage of the men going up the steps to the courthouse showed them being beated by onlookers as others took pictures on their mobile phones.

India has one of the highest rates of sexual assault in the world. Repeated headlines about similarly harrowing cases led to the introduction of the death penalty in January for the rape of children under 12, but it seems to have done little to deter perpetrators.

In 2016, the most recent year for which there are official statistics, more than 100 cases of rape occurred every day in India. For each of those 100, around six were girls under the age of 12.

es/jm (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

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