A jury has heard that nine men on trial over the drugging and raping of a woman by her husband took pleasure in the assaults as part of their "barbaric fantasies". Prosecutors said the woman's husband had been sexually abusing her in various ways while she was asleep and unconscious between 2015 and 2025.
The husband, in his 60s from Stockport, who cannot be named to protect his wife's anonymity, "filmed and photographed his exploits and began sharing that imagery online" with "other like-minded men", it was suggested. Louise Oakley KC said the man initially took advantage of occasions when she had drunk too much alcohol, before deliberately using a cocktail of stupefying drugs, ingested without her knowledge.
Husband invited other men to their home
He then began inviting other men to their home and filmed them raping and sexually assaulting her while she lay unconscious in bed, Ms Oakley added. "She had absolutely no idea it was going on," she told jurors at Manchester Minshull Street Court.
"That is, until the police came to her door and she was identified as the subject of the videos taken by [the husband]," she added. "These men took pleasure not only in the sexual acts they performed or agreed should be performed, but in the fact that [she] was 'unaware' - one of the buzz words they used frequently."
The prosecutor said the wife's lack of agency "was the whole point and part of their barbaric fantasies". Ms Oakley also said the husband was not in the dock and would be a witness in the case. He had been charged with 62 offences involving allegations of rape, administering substances with intent to stupefy or overpower his wife to enable a person to engage in sexual activity with her, and sharing intimate imagery of her.
Police uncovered abuse via Telegram chat group
Jurors were told many of them involved multiple incidents of offending, not single one-off offences, and some of his offending was committed by him alone while on other occasions it involved other men. "Some of those other men have been identified, some have not," said the prosecutor.
Police discovered what had been happening when undercover journalists infiltrated a chat group on messaging app Telegram in which people appeared to have a specific interest in sex with someone asleep or unconscious, the court was told. The husband was identified as one of the group users who shared imagery of his wife asleep or unconscious while different men, including allegedly some of the defendants, engaged in sexual activity with her.
Detectives arrested the husband and among various items seized from his address was a mobile telephone which was "like a confession booth", said the prosecutor. Ms Oakley said: "It contained the husband's darkest secrets and his barbaric sexual fantasies that he had sought to fulfil going back to 2004."
She added: "There were over a million photographs and videos cataloguing not only his abuse of his wife but abuse on her committed by others, including those in the dock today. It provided the police with almost a script of the husband's offending. There is no doubt he lived a double life masked in respectability. He hid his dark and depraved secrets."
Defendants deny all charges
Robert Stewart, 70, of Stockport, denies rape, conspiracy to rape, conspiracy to administer a substance with intent; David Graves, 60, of Ilkeston, Derbyshire, denies conspiracy to rape, conspiracy to assault by penetration and conspiracy to administer a substance with intent, and Philip Wild, 59, of Stockport, denies sexual assault, attempted rape, assault by penetration and conspiracy to rape.
Daniel Rayner, 42, of Whitstable, Kent, denies conspiracy to rape, conspiracy to assault by penetration and conspiracy to administer a substance with intent; Mohammed Sabir, 28, of Stockport, denies rape and conspiracy to rape, and Jordan Wallace, 31, of Wythenshawe, denies rape and attempted rape. Alan Keelan, 42, of Wythenshawe, denies attempted rape and assault by penetration; Richard Townsend, 38, of Heywood, Greater Manchester, denies assault by penetration and Jonathan Kirk, 43, of Stockport, denies rape and conspiracy to rape.
The Crown say alleged contact offenders, those who visited the couple's home, are taxi driver Wild, recruitment agency worker Sabir, building supplies employee Wallace, industrial cleaning firm worker Keelan, retiree Stewart, sheet metal worker Townsend and senior paramedic Kirk. Alleged non-contact offenders are retired kitchen company sales rep Graves and self-employed mechanic Rayner, the jury was told. The prosecution will continue its opening of the case on Tuesday.
