A British man has admitted committing 60 offences of drugging and raping his wife without her knowledge for 20 years, in a stark reminder of the case of Dominique Pelicot in France.
The identity of the accused husband has been withheld by the court to protect his wife’s legal right to anonymity.
The man had already admitted some counts, including rape, at the Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court, according to a BBC report.
The wife was supported by her family members when the accused, in his sixties, repeated the word guilty to dozens of charges, including multiple counts of rape, assault by penetration and administering a substance with intent. He became visibly emotional, and at one point, the judge invited him to sit down in the dock. The husband, from the Stockport area of Greater Manchester, will be sentenced for the counts he has admitted at the conclusion of the trial.
A total of 14 men, including the husband, have been accused of offences against the same woman. Twelve other men have denied the sexual offences, while one other man previously admitted sexual offences against the survivor, The trial is due to continue in the coming weeks.
Similar case in France
Dominique Pélicot was convicted and sentenced in December 2024 to the maximum 20 years in prison by a French court for systematically drugging his wife and orchestrating her mass rape by dozens of strangers over nearly a decade. All the Frenchman’s 50 co-defendants were also found guilty of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault, while their victim, Gisele Pelicot, sat in the packed courtroom to hear the sentencing, having waived her right to anonymity. “It’s rare to have so much evidence in a rape case.
Here we have everything detailed, even if the victim, who was unconscious during the rapes, doesn’t remember anything,” said police commissioner Jeremie Bosse Platiere at the time.
