Man Accused of Abusing Councillor’s Wife ‘Did Not Know’ She Was Drugged

A man accused of sexually assaulting a mother told police he “did not know” she had been drugged, a court has heard. The woman’s husband was a former Tory councillor.

Philip Young, 50, allegedly advertised his wife, Joanne Young, 49, on Craigslist, seeking strangers to sexually abuse her while she was blindfolded, restrained and apparently incapacitated by drugs.

The jury heard that the invitation was presented as a sexual “kink” shared by the couple. Connor Sanderson-Doyle responded to the advert and was filmed assaulting Ms Young during an encounter in 2016.

The court was shown footage of the disturbing incident, in which Sanderson-Doyle, then aged 21, wore a mask while carrying out a sex act on the blindfolded mother-of-three.

When he was arrested in 2025, Sanderson-Doyle told police: “I could tell she felt uncomfortable, which made me feel uncomfortable, so I stopped.”

“I kind of looked at him (Young) and he said something like, ‘She’s not feeling it tonight,’ so I left,” he said, according to a transcript.

Sanderson-Doyle said he believed the arrangement was “all above board” and “legit”, and that he thought he was helping a married couple act out a sexual “kink”.

“I didn’t know some guy was drugging his wife and getting men around to rape her. That’s f*cking gross,” he told officers.

“I was so shocked when you told me about it this morning,” he said in the recorded interview transcript.

“It’s not an excuse. What has happened to this woman was horrible. It’s upsetting that this guy has done this and involved me in it,” he told investigators.

He described Young as an “odd-looking, chubby guy” who appeared to be recording the assault with a “proper big camera”.

Young, a business consultant, pleaded guilty earlier this year to multiple sexual offences against his wife of 20 years.

Four men he allegedly invited to the couple’s home in Swindon are now on trial at Winchester Crown Court. The charges, covering alleged incidents between 2016 and 2023, range from rape to sexual touching.

Sanderson-Doyle, 32, Richard Wilkins, 62, Norman Macksoni, 48, and Mohammed Hassan, 38, all deny the allegations.

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Prosecutor Saraj Jones KC told the jury that the Crown’s case was not that the defendants had given Ms Young the substances, but that their “effects” on her “were apparent” to them.

The allegations against Young came to light after police visited his address while investigating the downloading of extreme pornography.

Ms Jones said officers went to speak to Young on July 4, 2023.

She said when he gave access to his phone to check, they found a number of other ‘intimate’ images of his wife. She said: ‘In short, that led to identification of images that show intimate images of Joanne Young had been shared from the device, taken on the device and shared.

‘The investigation was much wider and all Mr Young’s devices were seized and the investigation begun.’

The jury, made up of eight men and four women, were shown the disturbing videos of the alleged sexual abuse by three of the four defendants

Ms Jones told the jury the men were expected to claim they believed Ms Young consented to the sexual activity.

But said that this was a ‘last desperate throw of the dice to convince you and perhaps even themselves that they are not rapists or sexual offenders’.

Macksoni, of Bedfordshire, denies rape, while Wilkins, of Swindon, has pleaded not guilty to rape and sexual assault.

Sanderson-Doyle, of Swindon, denies sexual assault and sexual touching, while Hassan, also of Swindon, has pleaded not guilty to sexual touching.

The trial continues.

ENDS