9 men go on trial in England accused of sexually assaulting woman drugged by husband

By Issy Ronald, Kara Fox, Saskya Vandoorne, CNN

Manchester, England (CNN) — Nine men accused of taking part in or helping to facilitate the abuse of a woman, whose husband drugged and sexually assaulting her for more than two decades, appeared in court Monday for the start of their trial in Manchester, England.

The accused all met the victim’s husband, a man in his 60s from Stockport in northern England, in online groups or on a swinging website after he shared images of her sexual abuse, prosecutors alleged.

“From 2023 onwards … he began actually inviting other men round to their home, and, whilst his wife lay unconscious in their bed, he filmed himself and others raping and sexually abusing her,” prosecutors said.

In one text exchange, one of the co-defendants becomes uneasy and warns the victim’s husband about “what happened to the guy in France,” referencing Dominique Pelicot who, along with dozens of other men, was found guilty of raping or sexually assaulting his former wife Gisèle in a case which shocked France and sparked a cultural reckoning.

The husband, who pleaded guilty in September to multiple offenses against his wife, including rape, sexual assault and administering a substance with intent to stupefy or overpower, cannot be named to protect his wife’s privacy. He remains in custody and will be sentenced at a later date.

The nine men on trial deny all charges against them. Four other co-defendants have already pleaded guilty to sexual offenses.

Prosecutors said the husband sexually abused his wife for over 20 years, first taking advantage of when she had drunk enough to put herself in a deep sleep before later using a “cocktail of stupefying drugs,” to ensure she would not wake up during the abuse.

He shared footage and photos of this with other men online “who enjoyed the fact that the (victim) was asleep or unconscious, entirely unaware of what was being done to her,” prosecutors said.

The court heard that the husband and wife had been in a relationship for 44 years and had two children together.

Seven of the nine men are accused of visiting the victim’s home. “They all knew (the victim) was not a willing participant in the activity, that she was not consenting, and they did not reasonably believe she was consenting to what they were doing,” prosecutors argued.

However, the men had varying degrees of knowledge, prosecutors said. “Some men knew that there were other men involved; others may not have; some men may only have known that (the victim) was incapacitated through drink, not that she had been drugged,” they said. “That is reflected in the different charges they face.”

The husband’s abuse was discovered after undercover journalists infiltrated one of these online groups, in which a user “claimed they were involved in drugging their wife and had been inviting strangers to rape her, whilst she was unconscious and unaware,” prosecutors said.

That user was identified and police obtained a warrant to search his address. They seized various items including a Samsung Galaxy phone containing “over a million photographs and videos” cataloguing the abuse, prosecutors said.

The victim says she had never met any of the defendants and did not knowingly have sexual contact with them, according to prosecutors.

Only when police came to the house one afternoon in October 2025 did she find out about the abuse, prosecutors said, adding that the “life she knew ended.”

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