Nine Men on Trial in Manchester Over Abuse of a Woman Drugged by Her Husband for More Than 20 Years
Nine men went on trial at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester, England, on November 2, accused of taking part in or helping to facilitate the abuse of a woman whose husband, prosecutors say, drugged and sexually assaulted her for more than two decades and invited other men to their home. All nine deny the charges.
Opening the case, prosecutor Louise Oakley KC told the court that the husband, a man in his 60s from Stockport who cannot be named to protect his wife's identity, first took advantage of occasions when his wife had drunk enough to fall into a deep sleep, and later, more and more frequently over a period of more than 20 years, gave her a cocktail of stupefying drugs without her knowledge so that she would not wake up during the abuse. The couple had been together for 44 years and have two children.
Prosecutors said the husband filmed and photographed the abuse, keeping more than a million photographs and videos on his phone, and shared the images with other men he met in online groups and on a swinging website; from 2023, he began inviting men to the couple's home. His wife learned of the abuse only in October 2025, when police came to the house. The husband pleaded guilty in September to about 60 offences, including rape, sexual assault and administering a substance with intent, and remains in custody awaiting sentencing; four other men have already pleaded guilty.
The nine defendants, aged between 28 and 70, include seven accused of visiting the couple's home. They deny charges including rape and sexual assault. The trial is expected to last about three months and continues.
It is the second case of its kind currently before the British courts: a trial involving four men opened in Winchester last week in a similar case of a husband drugging his wife. Organised drug-facilitated sexual assault drew global attention after the conviction in France of Dominique Pelicot, who drugged and raped his then wife Gisèle Pelicot alongside strangers he recruited online.
Source: Manchester Crown Court
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于英国曼彻斯特的 Minshull Street 刑事法庭，本案在此审理。照片 CC BY-SA 4.0，作者 Bristol Filer，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester, England, where the trial is being heard. CC BY-SA 4.0, by Bristol Filer, via Wikimedia Commons.
