A husband used a “cocktail of stupefying drugs” on his wife before filming himself sexually abusing her over 20 years and sharing the footage online, a court has heard.
The man also began inviting others to their house and “whilst his wife lay unconscious in their bed, he filmed himself and others raping and sexually abusing her”. A jury heard these men took pleasure not only in the sexual acts they performed but in the fact the wife was “unaware” it was happening.
Louise Oakley KC, prosecuting at Manchester Minshull Street crown court, told them “that was the whole point and part of their barbaric fantasies”.
Nine men on trial
Nine men have gone on trial accused of a number of sexual offences against the woman, who is entitled to lifelong anonymity.
The husband, a man in his 60s from the Stockport area, has previously pleaded guilty to 62 charges. He admitted offences of rape; assault by penetration; administering a substance with intent; sexual assault; attempted rape; and sharing intimate photographs or film. Four other men have also pleaded guilty to a variety of offences.
The court heard the wife was “entirely unaware” the abuse was happening and, in October 2025, “the life she knew ended” when the police knocked on the front door of her home to arrest her husband.
Abuse while unconscious
Ms Oakley said “unbeknownst to her”, for over 20 years, her husband had been abusing her sexually in a variety of ways whilst she was asleep or unconscious.
He would initially take advantage of occasions when she had drunk enough alcohol herself to put her into a deep sleep, “but also on many more occasions, more and more frequently, over that 20 year period, deliberately using a cocktail of stupefying drugs which he administered to her without her knowledge, with or without alcohol”.
The court heard the husband “filmed and photographed his exploits” and had begun sharing that imagery online across the internet and social media applications with other like-minded men.
Ms Oakley described them as “men who enjoyed not just the explicit or pornographic nature of the imagery”, but who enjoyed the fact that she was asleep or unconscious, entirely unaware of what was being done to her. She said the men not only enjoyed receiving this imagery, but actively encouraged him to commit further offences against his wife.
Online discussions and visits
Ms Oakley said the defendants were among those individuals who would “hide behind a screen”, but who conspired at various times over the years, up to his arrest, to rape and sexually assault his wife.
She said: “They derived sexual gratification and enjoyment from knowing that she was ‘unaware’ and ‘out of it’. These discussions took place across various online platforms, using accounts and handles that disguised their real identities.”
Ms Oakley said: “It is difficult to conceive how such offending could get worse, but it did.” From 2023 onwards at the latest, though he had been talking about it for much longer, the husband began inviting other men round to their home, and, while his wife lay unconscious in their bed, he filmed himself and others raping and sexually abusing her.
The prosecution said “some men knew there were other men involved; others may not have; some men may only have known that she was incapacitated through drink, not that she had been drugged. That is reflected in the different charges they face”.
Ms Oakley said: “But they all knew” that the wife “was not a willing participant in this activity, that she was not consenting, and they did not reasonably believe she was consenting to what they were doing. She could not – she had absolutely no idea it was going on.”
Marriage described as uneventful
The court was told the couple led an “uneventful” marriage. They enjoyed their garden, socialising and holidays abroad. For much of their marriage they had what the wife describes as a “normal” sex life but they had not had sex for about nine years.
The nine men on trial, who deny a range of offences, are David Graves, 60, of Ilkeston, Derbyshire; Daniel Rayner, 42, of Whitstable, Kent; Philip Wild, 59, of Stockport; Mohammed Sabir, 28, of Stockport; Jonathan Kirk, 43, of Stockport; Jordan Wallace, 31, of Wythenshawe, Manchester; Alan Keelan, 42, of Wythenshawe; Robert Stewart, 70, of Stockport, and Richard Townsend, 38, of Heywood, Greater Manchester.
The case continues.
