Nine men have gone on trial accused of participating in the abuse of a woman whose husband allegedly drugged, raped and sexually assaulted her while maintaining what prosecutors described as a double life concealed behind respectability.
The husband, who cannot be named to protect the woman’s anonymity, has pleaded guilty to several offences against her spanning more than 20 years. The alleged offences involving the nine defendants are said to have taken place between 2015 and his arrest in 2025.
Two defendants, Daniel Rayner, 42, and David Graves, 59, are described by prosecutors as non-contact offenders who allegedly encouraged the abuse online. The other seven are accused of visiting the couple’s home in Stockport, Greater Manchester, and taking part in the assaults.
Those seven are Philip Wild, 58; Jordan Wallace, 31; Alan Keelan, 42; Jonathan Kirk, 43; Robert Stewart, 70; Mohammed Sabir, 28; and Richard Townsend, 37. The defendants come from locations including Stockport, Manchester, Kent, Derbyshire and Greater Manchester.
Three other men—Sean Peers, Keith Fotheringham and Graham Brougham—have previously admitted abusing the woman. Karl Lindsay has also pleaded guilty to non-contact offences.
Opening the prosecution case at Manchester Minshull Street crown court, Louise Oakley KC said the husband had abused his wife while she was asleep or unconscious. She alleged that he initially took advantage of occasions when alcohol had made her fall into a deep sleep, before increasingly administering a combination of drugs without her knowledge.
Oakley said that, from 2023 at the latest, the husband began inviting other men to the home, where he allegedly filmed himself and others sexually assaulting the unconscious woman. Prosecutors say the men knew she was unaware and derived sexual gratification from that fact.
The woman was unaware of the abuse until police visited her and told her she had appeared in videos recorded by her husband. Oakley rejected any suggestion that the woman had been pretending to be unconscious as part of consensual role-play, describing the alleged conduct as rape and sexual assault.
The court heard that the investigation began after undercover journalists entered a chat on Telegram. Following the husband’s arrest, police seized his mobile phone, which prosecutors said contained material from other devices and cameras.
Oakley said the phone held more than a million photographs and videos, documenting alleged abuse of the woman by her husband and others, including some of the men currently on trial. She said the material dated back to 2004.
The nine defendants deny all the charges. The trial is continuing.
Sources: The Guardian World.