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Warning: This article contains distressing content
A woman who believed she had not had sex for nine years had in fact been regularly drugged and raped by her own husband and a group of strangers "whose depravity knew no bounds", a jury has been told.
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jury → publish → bounds
Her husband led a "double life", prosecutors said, regularly giving his wife a "stupefying cocktail" of drugs to make her "completely unaware" of the abuse.
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her → lead → abuse
He and four men have already pleaded guilty to a series of offences, but the trial of nine other defendants who deny all charges began at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court.
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who → plead → Court
Opening the case for the prosecution, Louise Oakley KC said the wife had been "happy" but "the life she knew ended when the police knocked on the front door".
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police → open → door
Before the case was opened, trial judge Maurice Greene warned jurors they would be expected to view evidence that could provoke feelings of "upset and anger".
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that → open → upset
As Oakley opened the case they were shown videos of the woman being raped and sexually assaulted while, the prosecution said, she was unconscious.
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she → open → videos
The jury heard the husband and vicitim had the appearance of a couple looking forward to retirement, who "led busy lives, enjoying their home and garden, socialising with family and friends, holidays abroad – all very much together".
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who → hear → family
But Oakley said the husband, who is also in his 60s and cannot be named to protect his wife's legal right to anonymity, had since 2004 been sharing videos and images online of himself raping and assaulting his unconscious wife at their family home in the Stockport area of Greater Manchester.
"You may think difficult to conceive how such offending could get worse, but it did," she told the court.
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she → say → Manchester
The jury heard the husband had "talked about" inviting men to their home to rape his wife for years but began actually doing so from at least 2023.
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husband → hear → 2023
The men were, the prosecution said, "well aware that she was not conscious, that is why they were there, to use her body whilst she was unaware".
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she → say → body
Oakley said when the husband's Samsung Galaxy mobile phone was seized by police it acted "like a confession booth" containing his "darkest secrets" and his "barbaric sexual fantasies".
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it → say → secrets
Detectives found more than a million photographs and videos "cataloging" the husband's abuse on that device.
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Detectives → find → device
Oakley said the files provided the police with "almost a script" of both the husband's offending and that of the nine men on trial.
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files → say → trial
"Their depravity seems to have had no bounds," Oakley said.
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Oakley → seem → bounds
"They too were leading double lives.
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They → lead → lives
Either creeping in and out of [the home address], in the hours of darkness, quietly and carefully so that they were not seen or heard, or hiding behind the screens of their mobile telephones or computers.
"No doubt believing they were safe."
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they → creep → telephones
The jury heard the men on trial included alleged "contact offenders" including paramedic Jonathan Kirk, 43; taxi driver Philip Wild, 59; amateur football coach Alan Keelan, 42, recruitment agency worker Mohammed Sabir, 28, Jordan Wallace, 31, who worked for a building supplies agency; sheet metal worker Richard Townsend, 37 and Robert Stewart, 70, who was retired.
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who → hear → agency
Two of the men, Daniel Rayner and David Graves, were described as alleged "non-contact" offenders - who did not attend the victim's home but allegedly encouraged the abuse or helped in other ways.
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who → describe → ways
Oakley told the jury: "During the course of this case, you may hear references to unconventional sexual practices, such as 'swinging' and 'sleep fetishes' and other 'kinks'.
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you → tell → swinging
It may be suggested that the imagery you see is posed, and that [the victim] is in fact only pretending to be asleep or unconscious as part of a fantasy role play with her husband.
"
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victim → suggest → husband
The prosecution says that is a smokescreen; what these men did was not participation in unconventional, but consensual sexual practices.
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did → say → practices
Oakley gave an example of a message from Stewart to the husband sent within hours of Stewart allegedly raping the victim in September 2025.
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Stewart → give → September
"Mate have had a bad feeling about it all day," she read.
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she → have → it
Remember what happened to the guy in France.
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what → remember → France
If she caught you out it would be a whole lot of trouble and end of your marriage and ruin your life."
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it → catch → life
Oakley said the mention of France was a reference to the case of Gisele Pelicot.
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mention → say → Pelicot
The jury heard the husband, after pleading guilty, had given an account of his actions and would appear as a witness.
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husband → hear → witness
He told prosecutors he began abusing his wife in the early 2000s.
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he → tell → 2000s
Initially he would record himself abusing her while she was unaware and kept the images "for himself".
However he soon progressed to sharing images on online chatrooms with other "like-minded" men.
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he → record → men
Oakley said in a "sick and perverted twist" he would sometimes pretend to be his wife in conversations online, but said that had stopped fairly "early on".
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that → say → conversations
The jury heard the investigation into the abuse began after a team of undercover investigative journalists infiltrated a channel on the encrypted messaging service Telegram in October 2025.
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team → hear → October
The channel appeared to involve men sharing images of apparently unconscious women being raped and sexually assaulted.
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channel → appear → women
One user in particular, Oakley said, was claiming he had been drugging and raping his wife and was inviting others to join in - while also sharing images of her.
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he → say → her
The user was linked to a phone number registered to the husband, enabling Greater Manchester Police to obtain a warrant to search his address.
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user → link → address
Oakley said when the contents of his phone were downloaded, material was found in a secure folder titled "visits", which also had messaging apps he had used to contact other defendants.
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he → say → defendants
She said the jury would only be given a selection of the files involved but that the police had viewed every single one "line-by-line".
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police → say → line
The husband has pleaded guilty to 62 offences including rape, adminstering a substance with intent, sharing intimate images and assault by penetration.
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husband → plead → penetration
Keith Fotheringham, 59, from Dundee in Scotland; Sean Peers, 38, from Stockport; Graham Brougham, 74, from Northwich in Cheshire and Karl Lindsay, 55, from Taunton in Somerset have also pleaded guilty to a number of offences.
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Fotheringham → plead → offences
The trial continues.
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trial → continue → ?
You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
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You → send → 2230
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