A husband who drugged and raped his wife for more than 20 years now says he fully expects to die in prison and wants to tell the truth, a jury has been told. The man, in his 60s from Stockport, has admitted multiple offences including rape and administering substances with intent to stupefy her so others could engage in sexual activity with her.
Nine other men are on trial at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester, accused of sexual offences against the wife. The Manchester Evening News and other media organisations are not naming the husband in order to protect his victim's anonymity. The nine men deny the charges they face.
Prosecution opening
Opening the case for the prosecution on Thursday, Louise Oakley KC told jurors the husband has pleaded guilty to charges including rape; assault by penetration; sexual assault; administering substances with intent to stupefy or overpower his wife; and sharing intimate imagery of her. She said: “After [the husband] had pleaded guilty to all the charges he faced on the indictment, he indicated that he would be willing to give evidence against those who he had offended with. He says he wants to tell the truth.”
“He is not doing it to get a reduced sentence. He fully expects to die in prison for what he has done. He accepts that what he did to [his wife] was down to him, that he was the one in control. Without him, none of it would have happened.”
Alleged offences and messages
Ms Oakley told jurors that in September 2025, the husband messaged defendant Robert Stewart asking ‘want my missus’ and ‘fancy doing my wife’. Before Mr Stewart is said to have arrived, the husband subjected his wife to sexual abuse, jurors heard. When Mr Stewart arrived, he is accused of raping her while she was unconscious.
Prosecutors claimed that messages sent by the wife to a friend the following morning are ‘telling’. One message read: “I’ve not been up long. Didn’t wake up until after 1pm. Had a brew and fell back to sleep. Still feel woozy. What’s wrong with me?” Ms Oakley said the woman ‘had been drugged at some point by her husband’.
Jurors heard the husband sent images of the alleged abuse committed by Mr Stewart to Daniel Rayner, who is said to have asked: “Did you use stronger stuff this time she’s totally out of it.” The husband replied: “More booze.” Mr Rayner allegedly told the husband it was ‘awesome’ and ‘incredible’, adding ‘I can't get enough of your stuff, it's incredible’.
Drug evidence and arrests
Ms Oakley said that between October 2014 and October 2025 there were ‘extensive searches’ for medication and drugs. Several pipettes were recovered by police from a bedside table, one containing a white powder residue found to be Zolpidem, a prescription sedative. Mixed with alcohol, the risk of severe sedation increases and could even be fatal, she said.
Toxicological analysis on strands of the woman’s hair found the presence of a number of drugs or medications, including Zolpidem, none of which had been prescribed to her. Zolpidem was found to be ‘by far the greatest concentration and over the longest period’. Ms Oakley said the level of drug incorporation can vary depending on hair dyeing, meaning the drugs found are ‘likely to be an underestimation’.
The defendants were arrested between October 2025 and March 2026. Mr Stewart was arrested on November 1, 2025, with a laptop found showing a swingers chat room site. He replied ‘no comment’ to some questions and denied providing drugs to the husband. Other defendants largely replied ‘no comment’ in interviews, with varying accounts of their involvement.
Defendants' accounts
Several defendants, including Jordan Wallace, Richard Townsend, and Jonathan Kirk, said they believed the wife was consenting or engaging in role play. Mr Kirk gave a prepared statement saying he believed the wife was conscious and consenting, and that the husband had lied to fool others into having sex with her while she was affected by intoxicants.
Ms Oakley said: “You will decide whether what the defendants now say may be true. The prosecution say they have been caught, and you will forgive my expression, with their trousers down, quite literally. That anything they said or did was fantasy or role play is their last-ditch attempt to try and get away with what they were doing. It wasn’t a game, it wasn’t fantasy role play, it wasn’t unconventional consensual sexual practices. It was, as I said at the beginning, men practising their barbaric fantasies on a completely unaware victim.”
The nine defendants deny various counts including conspiracy to rape, rape, assault by penetration, and conspiracy to administer a substance. Four other men pleaded guilty at earlier hearings to various offences linked to the case. The trial continues.
