Middle-Aged Man Catfishes Women Into 'Fifty Shades Of Grey'-Style Sex

Bondage is in the eye of the beholder, according to a 68-year-old Frenchman who posed as young male model online to lure in sexual partners.

His horrified female conquests are pressing rape charges, claiming consent implies full knowledge of the situation.

Le Parisien reports the paunchy and balding man, identified only as "Michel," created an attractive persona named Anthony Laroche for the dating website Zoosk.

"Laroche" pinpointed 40-year-old Sylvie and began flirting.

Soon, Michel took the relationship one step further by inviting Sylvie to a "Fifty Shades of Grey"-style first date at his home, suggesting she blindfold herself before entering his darkened bedroom.

The woman alleges she removed the blindfold after sex to find herself in bed with an old man, not the handsome 37-year-old she'd been speaking with online.

It's a ploy Michel seems to have used before. Following his arrest on March 17, a second woman reportedly came forward with a very similar blindfolding story.

According to The Independent, police found evidence that shows the man has been catfishing women on his Zoosk profile since 2009, and he was in contact with hundreds of women at the time of his arrest.

Michel claims the fake photo protected his identity on the Internet, and his lawyer, Laurent Poumarède, told press the women in question were not raped.

In translated statement, Poumarède said,

Rape implies the absence of consent. Here the women were at no time forced. I wonder if these women didn't knowingly close their eyes to the truth in more ways than one.

Thanks to this Frenchman, online daters around the world will ask their potential dates a few more questions before meeting them in person.

Michel, pictured on the left, turned out to look nothing like the model whose image he'd been using to catfish women.