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

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.”

九名男子被控参与或协助虐待一名女子，该女子的丈夫给她下药并对其进行性侵犯长达二十多年。周一，这九名男子在英国曼彻斯特出庭受审。

检方称，所有被告都是在网上群组或换妻网站上认识了受害者的丈夫，他是一名来自英格兰北部斯托克波特的 60 多岁男子，此前他曾分享过受害者遭受性虐待的照片。

检察官说：“从 2023 年开始……他开始邀请其他男人到家里来，趁妻子昏迷在床上时，他拍摄自己和其他人强奸和性虐待她的视频。”

在一段短信交流中，一名共同被告感到不安，并警告受害者的丈夫“法国那个人发生了什么事”，他指的是多米尼克·佩利科特，他与其他数十名男子一起被判强奸或性侵犯其前妻吉赛尔罪名成立，此案震惊了法国，并引发了一场文化反思。

为保护妻子隐私，该男子于9月认罪，承认对妻子犯有多项罪行，包括强奸、性侵犯以及使用药物致其昏迷或丧失行动能力。他目前仍被羁押，将于日后宣判。

受审的九名男子否认所有指控。另有四名共同被告已承认犯有性犯罪。

检察官称，丈夫对妻子进行了长达 20 多年的性虐待，最初趁妻子喝醉昏睡时实施性侵，后来又使用“多种麻醉药物的混合物”，以确保妻子在遭受虐待时不会醒来。

检察官说，他将这些视频和照片分享给网上的其他男子，“这些男子很享受受害者处于睡着或昏迷状态，完全不知道自己正在遭受什么。”

法庭获悉，这对夫妻已经相恋44年，育有两个孩子。

九名男子中有七人被控到访受害者家中。检方辩称：“他们都知道（受害者）并非自愿参与，她没有同意，而且他们也没有理由相信她同意他们的行为。”

然而，检方表示，这些男子对案情的了解程度各不相同。“有些人知道还有其他男子参与其中；有些人可能不知道；有些人可能只知道（受害者）因饮酒而失去意识，但不知道她被下了药，”检方说。“这体现在他们面临的不同指控上。”

检察官表示，卧底记者潜入其中一个网络群组后，发现了丈夫的虐待行为。该群组中一名用户“声称他们给妻子下药，并邀请陌生人在她失去意识时强奸她”。

警方确认了该用户身份，并获得了搜查令，搜查了他的住所。检察官称，警方查获了包括一部三星Galaxy手机在内的各种物品，手机里存有“超过一百万张照片和视频”，记录了虐待行为。

据检察官称，受害者表示她从未见过任何被告，也并非在知情的情况下与他们发生性接触。

检察官表示，直到 2025 年 10 月的一个下午，警察来到她家时，她才发现自己遭受了虐待，并补充说，“她所熟悉的生活就此结束了”。