Nine men who ‘derived sexual gratification and enjoyment’ from the ‘use and abuse’ of a woman who had been drugged unconscious went on trial yesterday.
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who → derive → trial
The woman’s ordeal, which began over two decades ago, was initially perpetrated by her husband of 40 years, jurors at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court were told.
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jurors → begin → Court
But the husband, a man in his 60s, began ‘sharing that imagery online across the internet and social media applications’ with other ‘like-minded men’ – while his wife was unknowingly given a ‘cocktail of stupefying drugs’, prosecutor Louise Oakley KC said.
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prosecutor → begin → drugs
From 2023, the husband began ‘actually inviting other men round to their home whilst his wife lay unconscious in their bed’, when he ‘filmed himself and them raping and sexually abusing her’, Ms Oakley said.
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Oakley → begin → her
Footage would be posted ‘within minutes’ or sometimes even while abuse was ongoing, the court was told.
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court → post → minutes
The defendants all deny a variety of sexual offences to fulfil their ‘barbaric fantasies’.
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defendants → deny → fantasies
On trial are Jonathan Kirk, 43, a senior paramedic who met Prince Harry; Robert Stewart, 70, a retired DJ; Mohammed Sabir, 28, a recruitment agency worker; youth football coach Alan Keelan, 42; dog walker Jordan Wallace, 31; taxi driver Philip Wild, 59; metal worker Richard Townsend, 38; David Graves, 60, a sales rep; and Daniel Rayner, 42, a self-employed mechanic.
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who → meet → Harry
But Ms Oakley said the group ‘conspired at various times over the years’, up to (the husband’s) arrest last October, ‘to rape and sexually assault (the wife), and to administer substances to her so that her body could be used and abused’.
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body → say → her
Jonathan Kirk, accused of two rapes, is among nine men charged with abuse of the wife
Kirk obscured his face and wore sunglasses as he arrived at Minshull Street Crown Court for a hearing earlier this year
Defendant
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he → accuse → hearing
Stewart, 70, a divorced father of two and grandfather who used to be a DJ
Married father-of-two Alan Keelan, 42, pictured at a football club awards presentation
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who → use → presentation
Keelan covered his face with his hood as he arrived at court for an earlier hearing in March
She added: ‘They derived sexual gratification and enjoyment from knowing that she was “unaware” and “out of it”.’
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she → cover → it
The barrister said that the men, who communicated via messaging apps such as Telegram, ‘not only enjoyed receiving this imagery’, but ‘actively encouraged’ the husband to commit further offences.
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who → say → offences
They also ‘advised him as to what to administer to her and how to do it, so as to incapacitate her just enough to allow (the husband) to continue with his abuse, but not so much that (his wife) realised that anything was wrong’.
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anything → advise → abuse
Ms Oakley said the wife ‘had absolutely no idea what was going on’ – but the men ‘knew that she was not a willing participant in this activity, that she was not consenting, and they did not reasonably believe she was consenting to what they were doing,’ she added.
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she → say → what
The court heard the woman had recently retired and that it was a ‘happy and exciting time in her life’ - but the ‘life she knew ended’ when police knocked on the door of the family home in Stockport, Greater Manchester, to arrest her husband.
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police → hear → husband
Ms Oakley said: ‘For over 20 years, her husband had been abusing her sexually in a variety of different ways whilst she was asleep or was unconscious’.
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she → say → ways
She said he began by ‘taking advantage of occasions when she had drunk enough alcohol herself to put her into a deep sleep, but also on many, many more occasions, and more and more frequently, over that 20 year period, deliberately using a cocktail of stupefying drugs which he administered to her without her knowledge, with or without alcohol.’
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he → say → alcohol
Ms Oakley said defence claims the wife was ‘only pretending to be asleep or unconscious as part of a fantasy role play’ was ‘a smokescreen’.
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wife → say → play
Dog walker and delivery driver Jordan Wallace, 31, from Stockport, is also among the accused
Jordan Wallace is pictured outside Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester
Father-of-three Philip Wild, 58, Stockport, a taxi driver, is accused of attempted rape
Mohammed Sabir, 28, is the youngest defendant and denies three counts of rape
Richard Townsend, 37, denies two sexual offences against the same woman as the other men
‘What these men did was not participation in unconventional, but consensual sexual practices: it was rape and sexual assault, pure and simple,’ she said.
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she → accuse → practices
‘These men took pleasure not only in the sexual acts they performed and or agreed should be performed, but in the fact that she was ‘unaware’, one of the buzz words they used repeatedly… that was the whole point and part of their barbaric fantasies.’
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that → take → fantasies
Ms Oakley said the wife had been with her husband for 44 years and the couple had two children.
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couple → say → children
She said they both lived ‘busy lives’, enjoyed regular holidays abroad together and, while she had retired, her husband was still working.
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husband → say → holidays
When interviewed by police, the woman said that ‘to her knowledge, they had never taken photographs or videos of themselves engaged in sexual activity and she and her husband had not, again to her knowledge, had sex for about nine years prior’.
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she → interview → sex
She said they had stopped doing so ‘when she went through the menopause and felt uncomfortable being touched, and they had just “got out of the habit”’.
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they → say → habit
The woman admitted she drank daily, as much as a bottle of wine a day, but it ‘would tend to make her sleep as she was generally not a good sleeper, waking two or three times a night’.
Ms Oakley said the abuse came to light when ‘undercover journalists had infiltrated a chat group on a messaging app called Telegram’.
'To be a member of this group, you had to have shared imagery of an unaware partner being sexually abused,' she said.
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she → admit → partner
Stewart, Wild, Sabir and Kirk, all of Stockport, Greater Manchester, Graves, of Ilkeston, Derbyshire, and Rayner, of Whitstable, Kent, deny conspiracy to rape between 2015 and 2025.
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Stewart → deny → 2015
Graves and Rayner also deny conspiracy to assault by penetration between 2018 and 2025, while Stewart, Graves and Rayner deny conspiracy to administer a substance ‘with the intention of stupefying or overpowering’ the wife between 2015 and 2025.
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Stewart → deny → 2015
David Graves, 60, of Ilkeston, Derbyshire, denies three charges
Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court, where the husband admitted 62 charges
Sean Peers, 37, has admitted offences between September 2024 and November 2025
University technician Keith Fotheringham, 59, previously admitted his role in abuse
Former Taunton Town Football Club CEO Karl Lindsay, 56, has admitted charges
Graham Brougham, 74, is the oldest of 14 defendants charged over the attacks
Wild is also charged with sexual assault in August 2023, plus attempted rape and assault by penetration in February 2025.
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Wild → deny → February
Sabir denies three rapes, in February 2025 and twice in September 2025.
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Sabir → deny → September
Wallace, of Wythenshawe, Manchester, denies rape and attempted rape in May 2025, Keelen, from Manchester, denies two attempted rapes and an assault by penetration, all in June 2025.
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Keelen → deny → June
Wallace, of Wythenshawe, Manchester, denies rape and attempted rape in May 2025, Keelan, from Manchester, denies two attempted rapes and an assault by penetration, all in June 2025.
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Keelan → deny → June
Nine men 'indulged barbaric fantasies' through 'use and abuse' of wife who was drugged unconscious and raped in her own bed, trial hears
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trial → indulge → bed
Townsend, of Heywood, Greater Manchester, denies assault by penetration in July 2025, while Kirk denies two rapes in August 2025.
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Kirk → deny → August
Stewart denies two rapes in September 2025.
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Stewart → deny → September
Jurors were told the woman’s husband has admitted 62 charges against him including multiple counts of rape at an earlier hearing.
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husband → tell → hearing
Former football club chief executive Karl Lindsay, 56, of Taunton, Somerset, pensioner Graham Brougham, 74, of Northwich, Cheshire, university technician Keith Fotheringham, 59, of Dundee, and unemployed Sean Peers, 38, of Stockport - have also pleaded guilty to various sexual offences against the wife, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
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who → plead → reasons
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