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A Stockport husband in his sixties who drugged and raped his wife for more than 20 years has told a court he expects to die in prison, as prosecutors began outlining why he allegedly invited other men to abuse her while she lay unconscious. The man, who cannot be identified to protect his wife's anonymity, admitted 62 offences between 2004 and 2025 — including multiple counts of rape and administering substances with intent to stupefy — and is now giving evidence for the prosecution against nine men on trial at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court. Daily Dazzling Dawn understands the case has been likened in court to that of Gisele Pelicot, the French woman whose husband was convicted of orchestrating her mass rape.
The question at the heart of the trial is motive. Prosecutor Louise Oakley KC told jurors the defendants had shared the husband's "barbaric fantasies" and "led double lives to mask their depravity," telling them: "It was men practising their barbaric fantasies on a completely unaware victim." She acknowledged the defence may frame the conduct as fantasy or role play, dismissing that as "their last-ditch attempt to try and get away with what they were doing." Daily Dazzling Dawn learned the husband, after pleading guilty to all charges, indicated he wanted his wife and family to know the truth. "He is not doing it to get a reduced sentence. He fully expects to die in prison for what he has done," Ms Oakley said.
The court heard the husband initially took advantage of his wife while she was asleep or unconscious through alcohol, filming the abuse and sharing images online. He later turned to medication and drugs to render her defenceless, with internet browsing history between 2014 and 2025 revealing extensive searches for medication and their effects. Prosecutors described how he researched "date rape drugs" and crushed tablets into her food and drink, though the medication turned wine cloudy and made her curry taste bitter. Police seized pipettes from a bedroom drawer bearing traces of the drugs. An 8cm hair sample analysed by a French forensic toxicologist revealed morphine, ketamine and cocaine alongside sedatives and anti-depressants — none of which she had been prescribed. The court heard one sedative, mixed with alcohol, could prove fatal.
From 2023, the husband allegedly began inviting men to the couple's home to abuse his wife while she was "out of it." Police uncovered the operation after undercover journalists infiltrated a Telegram chat group whose users appeared to have a specific interest in sex with someone asleep or unconscious. The husband was identified as a group user who shared imagery of the abuse, and detectives seized a phone containing more than a million photographs and videos. The jury was shown messages the woman sent a friend in September last year after she was allegedly attacked by her husband, Mohammed Sabir, 28, and Robert Stewart, 70, in the same night. She said she had "only just woken up" feeling "wobbly, woozy and a bit weird," asking: "What's wrong with me?" Stewart later messaged the husband to "delete all images" because of "the guy in France" — a reference, Ms Oakley said, to Pelicot.
Four men have admitted offending and will be sentenced alongside the husband: Karl Lindsay, 56, of Taunton; Keith Fotheringham, 59, of Dundee; Graham Brougham, 74, of Northwich; and Sean Peers, 38, of Stockport. The nine on trial deny various sexual offences. They are Robert Stewart, 70, of Stockport; David Graves, 60, of Ilkeston; Philip Wild, 59, of Stockport; Daniel Rayner, 42, of Whitstable; Mohammed Sabir, 28, of Stockport; Jordan Wallace, 31, of Wythenshawe; Alan Keelan, 42, of Wythenshawe; Richard Townsend, 38, of Heywood; and Jonathan Kirk, 43, of Stockport. Ms Oakley told the jury the accused were caught "with their trousers down, quite literally." The trial, expected to last three months, continues.
