A man accused of raping a woman who was drugged and sexually abused by her husband for decades sent him a text message hours after an alleged visit to their home, a jury was told. The message said: "delete all images from your phone etc as its too risky. Remember what happened to the guy in France". Prosecutors said "the man in France" was a reference to the high-profile case of Gisele Pelicot.
Robert Stewart denies charges
Robert Stewart, 70, of Sandpiper Drive, Stockport, denies one count of conspiracy to rape and two counts of rape relating to the woman. He is on trial together with eight other men who all deny charges they face. Mr Stewart, who is retired, is alleged to be a "contact offender" who visited the couple's home, the jury heard.
Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court has heard the woman's husband, a man in his 60s from Stockport, was charged with 62 offences involving allegations of rape, assault by penetration, sexual assault, administering substances with intent to stupefy or overpower his wife so as to enable a person or persons to engage in sexual activity with her, and sharing intimate imagery of her. The jury was told he has "now admitted his responsibility" and was now "a witness" in the trial.
The Manchester Evening News and other media organisations are not naming the man in order to protect the anonymity of his wife. The law entitles her to anonymity for life as the victim of sexual offences.
Husband 'abused wife for 20 years'
At the opening of the trial on Monday, prosecutor Louise Oakley KC said the woman's "life she knew ended" when police knocked at their door in October last year and arrested her husband. Ms Oakley said that "unbeknownst" to her - for more than 20 years - her husband had been "abusing her sexually in a variety of ways whilst she was asleep or was unconscious".
He was said to have initially "taken advantage of occasions when she had drunk enough alcohol herself to put her into a deep sleep". But the prosecutor said that "on many more occasions" he used a "cocktail of stupefying drugs which he administered to her without her knowledge, with or without alcohol". The husband was said to have filmed and photographed his attacks on her, and shared imagery online across the internet and social media applications with "other like-minded men".
Ms Oakley said: "They derived sexual gratification and enjoyment from knowing that she was 'unaware' and 'out of it'." The prosecutor said it was "difficult to conceive how such offending could get worse", but said that it did. The jury was told that from 2023, the husband began "inviting other men round to their home" and filmed himself and others raping and sexually abusing her as she lay unconscious in their bed.
Phone contents described as 'confession booth'
Police seized a black Samsung Galaxy S25 mobile phone when the husband was arrested. Ms Oakley described its contents as "like a confession booth" and said it "contained decades worth of material". "It contained [the husband's] darkest secrets and the barbaric sexual fantasies that he had sought to fulfil going back in time to 2004," she said. "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."
She said it gave police "a script" of his offending. "There is no doubt he lived a double life masked in respectability," she said. "Outwardly, he maintained a clean and admired image. He hid his dark and depraved secrets." The jury was told imagery was found within a user-created secure folder in an album entitled 'visits'.
The text Robert Stewart sent
Ms Oakley said that "within hours" of visiting the couple's home, the defendant Robert Stewart sent a message to the husband saying: "Mate have had a bad feeling about it all day. Delete all images from your phone etc as its too risky. Remember what happened to the guy in France. Delete me from your phone and life. If she caught you out it would be a whole lot of trouble and end of your marriage and ruin your life."
Ms Oakley told the jury: "As you will no doubt remember, 'the guy in France', the man in France, who had been raping his wife, a lady by the name of Gisele Pelicot."
All nine defendants and the charges they face
David Graves, 59, of Milton Avenue, Derbyshire, denies one count of conspiracy to rape, one count of conspiracy to commit assault by penetration and one count of conspiracy to administer a substance with intent. Mr Stewart denies one count of conspiracy to rape and two counts of rape.
Taxi driver Philip Wild, 58, of St Davids Road, Cheadle, denies one count of conspiracy to rape; one count of conspiracy to commit assault by penetration; one count of sexual assault; one count of attempted rape and one count of assault by penetration. Daniel Rayner, 42, of Sherwood Drive, Whitstable, denies one count of conspiracy to rape; one count of conspiracy to commit assault by penetration and one count of conspiracy to administer a substance with intent.
Recruitment agency worker Mohammed Sabir, 28, of no fixed address, denies one count of conspiracy to rape; one count of conspiracy to commit assault by penetration and three counts of rape. Building supplies employee Jordan Wallace, 31, of Hindsford Close, Wythenshawe, denies one count of conspiracy to rape, one count of rape and one count of attempted rape. Alan Keelan, 42, of Foscarn Drive, Wythenshawe, denies one count of conspiracy to rape, two counts of attempted rape and one count of assault by penetration.
Richard Townsend, 37, of Woodland Street, Heywood, denies one count of conspiracy to assault by penetration and one count of assault by penetration. Jonathan Kirk, 43, of Telford Close, Macclesfield, a former senior paramedic, denies one count of conspiracy to rape; one count of conspiracy to commit assault by penetration and one count of rape.
Four other men have pleaded guilty at earlier hearings to various offences linked to the case, the jury has been told. They are Keith Fotheringham, 59, of Dundee; Karl Lindsay, 56, of Taunton; Sean Peers, 38, of Stockport, and Graham Brougham, 74, of Northwich, Cheshire. The trial continues.
