Man and 12 Others Charged in Alleged Conspiracy to Drug and Rape Wife Goes on Trial in Manchester
A 60-year-old man from Stockport and twelve other men face a trial in Manchester on multiple rape and assault charges linked to the alleged drugging and sexual abuse of the man's wife.
A man in his 60s from Stockport, England, and twelve co-accused are scheduled to appear before a Manchester court on Tuesday on charges that include rape, sexual assault and administering a substance to render a victim unconscious. The prosecution says the defendants conspired to drug the man's wife while she was unconscious and then commit a series of sexual offences against her. The primary defendant faces 48 counts, having previously pleaded guilty to 15 charges that encompass five rapes, three sexual assaults, six assaults by penetration and one count of sharing intimate images, according to Greater Manchester police. He continues to deny the remaining allegations, which include additional rapes, attempted rapes, assaults by penetration, sexual assaults, and several conspiracy offences, as outlined by the Crown Prosecution Service. The other men, aged between 28 and 73, are accused of either directly abusing the victim or facilitating the administration of the incapacitating substance. The case has been compared to the 2024 French mass-rape trial involving Gisèle Pelicot, who testified against her ex-husband and other men.
"The evidence shows a coordinated effort to drug and sexually assault the victim," a Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson said. "We will present the full range of charges to the jury," added a Greater Manchester police official.