A Man Who Raped an Elderly Nun in India Has Been Sentenced to Life Behind Bars

A Bangladeshi man convicted of raping an elderly nun in 2015 was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday at the culmination of a sexual assault case that has sent shockwaves through India.

A court in Kolkata found Nazrul Islam guilty of rape and attempted murder, the BBC reports. It also doled out 10-year jail sentences to five other men found guilty of robbing her convent, and a seven-year sentence to a sixth man who helped conceal the attackers.

In March 2015, thousands of Indians marched in Kolkata to protest the assault on the 71-year-old nun while six attackers burgled and vandalized her convent in the West Bengal city of Ranaghat, near the border with Bangladesh.

Judge Kumkum Singha told the packed court that the assault was a “blot on West Bengal’s legacy where Mother Teresa worked for the poor.”

According to the BBC, there have been multiple attacks on churches and India’s small christian community in recent years.

The brutal gang rape of a Delhi student in 2012 bought sexual violence in India to the fore, and led to a strengthening of some of the country’s laws. But campaigners there say sexual assault remains common.