Nine men accused of sexually abusing an unconscious woman were identified after police discovered more than a million photographs and videos on her husband’s mobile phone, a court heard.
Jurors were told the men obtained “sexual gratification and enjoyment” from the woman’s “use and abuse” after she was allegedly given a “cocktail of stupefying drugs”.
The husband’s black Samsung S25 was described as acting “like a confessional”, giving police what prosecutors said was almost a script documenting the alleged abuse.
Prosecutor Louise Oakley KC referred to a message allegedly sent to the husband by one of the defendants after a visit. The sender urged him to delete the images and warned: “Remember what happened to the guy in France”.
Ms Oakley told the court that the reference was to the French man who had raped his wife, Gisèle Pelicot.
Opening the case at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court, Ms Oakley said footage of the woman had been “taken without her consent” while she was “obviously unconscious”.
Jonathan Kirk, accused of two rapes, is among nine men charged with abusing the woman
Kirk obscured his face and wore sunglasses while arriving at Minshull Street Crown Court for a hearing earlier this year
Defendant Robert Stewart, 70, a divorced father of two and grandfather, previously worked as a DJ
Married father-of-two Alan Keelan, 42, pictured at a football club awards presentation
Keelan covered his face with his hood as he arrived at court for an earlier hearing in March
The alleged abuse came to light after “undercover journalists infiltrated a chat group” on the Telegram messaging app, the court heard.
Following the husband’s arrest, investigators examined his phone and found what prosecutors described as his “darkest secrets”, including more than a million photographs and videos.
The defendants on trial are Jonathan Kirk, 43, a senior paramedic; Robert Stewart, 70, a retired DJ; Mohammed Sabir, 28, a businessman; Alan Keelan, 42, a youth football coach; Jordan Wallace, 31, a dog walker; Philip Wild, 59, a taxi driver; Richard Townsend, 38, a metal worker; David Graves, 60; and Daniel Rayner, 42.
All nine men deny various sexual offences.
Jurors were told that in September, the woman’s husband of 40 years admitted 62 charges, including multiple counts of rape.
Ms Oakley said the husband had “lived a double life masked in respectability” while concealing “dark and depraved secrets”. He allegedly drugged and raped his wife for more than 20 years before his arrest last October.
Turning to the other defendants, Ms Oakley said: “Their depravity, also, we’d suggest, had no bounds. They, too, were living double lives”.
The prosecution alleges the group “conspired” to administer substances to the woman so that “her body could be used and abused”.
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
The court heard the husband began sharing images and videos of the abuse online over 10 years ago – but his ‘deepening perversion’ meant he ‘wanted to share her’.
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.
The men would arrive at the four-bedroom house in Stockport, Greater Manchester, ‘quietly and carefully after dark’, jurors heard.
Footage would be posted ‘within minutes’ or sometimes even while abuse was ongoing, the court was told. Jurors were shown two of the videos.
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Ms Oakley said the wife ‘had absolutely no idea what was going on’ – but the men ‘knew that she was not a willing participant’.
The court heard the ‘life (the woman) knew ended’ when police knocked on the door of the family home.
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’.
The court heard the husband began sharing images and videos of the abuse online over 10 years ago – but his ‘deepening perversion’ meant he ‘wanted to share her’.
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
David Graves, 60, of Ilkeston, Derbyshire, denies three charges
Ms Oakley said the wife and her husband, who had been together 44 years, both lived ‘busy lives’, enjoyed regular holidays abroad and her husband was still working.
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, to her knowledge, had sex for nine years’.
Ms Oakley told jurors Stewart sent a message to the husband after he visited the house, urging him to ‘delete all images’ and saying ‘remember what happened to the guy in France’.
He wrote: ‘Mate have had a bad feeling about it all day. Delete all images from your phone etc as its too risky. Remember what happened to the guy in France.
‘Delete me from your phone and life. If she caught you out it would be a whole lot of trouble and end your marriage and ruin your life.’
‘The reference in the message related to the man in France who had been raping his wife, a lady by the name of Giselle Pelicot,’ Ms Oakley said.
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.
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.
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. Sabir denies three rapes, in February 2025 and twice in September 2025.
Wallace, of Stockport, denies rape and attempted rape in May 2025, Keelen, from Manchester, denies two attempted rapes and an assault by penetration, all in June 2025.
Townsend, of Heywood, Greater Manchester, denies assault by penetration in July 2025, while Kirk denies two rapes in August 2025. Stewart denies two rapes in September 2025.
Four other men – Karl Lindsay, 56, of Taunton, Somerset, Graham Brougham, 74, of Northwich, Cheshire, Keith Fotheringham, 59, of Dundee, and Sean Peers, 38, of Stockport – have also pleaded guilty to various sexual offences at earlier hearings.
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