Sept. 1 (UPI) — A British man accused of drugging, sexually abusing and raping his wife over a span of decades went on trial Tuesday in Manchester, along with a dozen other men accused of conspiring with him on the abuse.
The man’s name was not released to protect the anonymity of his wife. He is in his 60s and from Stockport, England.
The man pleaded guilty to 15 charges since his 2025 arrest, including five counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault, Greater Manchester police said, CBS News reported.
He will face 33 more charges during the trial, the Crown Prosecution Service said. These include 11 counts of rape, four counts of sexual assault, four counts of conspiracy to rape, one count of conspiracy to administer a substance and one count of administering a substance with intent. The charges cover a period from 2004 to 2025.
The other men face charges including sexual abuse and helping to administer the substances that made the victim unconscious. They range from 28 to 73 years old, CBS News reported. The acts allegedly took place between 2023 and 2025.
Prosecutors said a 13th man, Keith Fotheringham, 59, of Dundee, Scotland, pleaded guilty to conspiring to rape and drugging the woman without her consent, The New York Times reported.
The trial is expected to last about three months.
The case has been compared to that of Gisele Pelicot, a French woman whose ex-husband, Dominique Pelicot, was found guilty in 2024 — along with 51 other men — of raping her over the course of a decade. Pelicot waived her right to anonymity and testified publicly in the case, requesting court proceedings be public.
