Drugged, raped and sold online by her husband. The trial of four men accused of sexual violence against Joanne Young, the victim of her husband Philip who for 13 years had raped her, drugged her and offered her to others on Internet dating sites, opened in recent hours in the Crown Court of Winchester, in southern England. Richard Wilkins, 62, and Norman Macksoni, 48, face charges of rape, while Connor Sanderson-Doyle, 32, and Mohammed Hassan, 38, of sexual abuse, for events that occurred between 2016 and 2023: all have pleaded not guilty.
Drugs for a deep sleep, then violence
The woman’s husband, a 50-year-old former Conservative councilor, admitted guilt in January to 48 crimes, including 11 rapes, and is now waiting to know the sentence. “He was looking for strangers willing to go to bed with his wife”, prosecutor Sarah Jones told jurors yesterday, according to whom since 2015 the man had been using “drugs capable of putting her into a deep sleep”.
The English police had identified him for uploading violent pornographic material online, and found videos on his devices of the woman tied to a bed while other men performed sexual acts on her. According to the prosecution, three of the defendants appear in the videos.
The victim waived his anonymity
Now the process is underway. The case is reminiscent of that of Gisèle Pelicot, the French woman who was sedated by her husband for almost ten years and raped by him and dozens of men, in a shocking story that emerged in 2020 and has become one of the most discussed cases of violence against women in the world. Like Gisèle Pelicot, Joanne Young has also decided to renounce anonymity.