Four men sexually assaulted a woman after her then-husband drugged her and advertised her on Craigslist, Grindr and swinging websites, a court has been told.
Norman Macksoni, 48, Richard Wilkins, 62, Connor Sanderson-Doyle, 32, and Mohammed Hassan, 38, are on trial at Winchester Crown Court after pleading not guilty to sexual offences against Joanne Young.
They are charged jointly with her ex-husband Philip Young, 50, a former Conservative councillor, who has admitted to drugging and raping her over 13 years.
As the trial began, prosecutor Sarah Jones KC told the jury: “This case is about whether it is ever reasonable to have sex with an unknown woman without checking with her first.”
Warning: This story contains distressing details
Joanne Young, who has waived her right to anonymity, told police that to her knowledge she had a “fairly normal” and “always monogamous” sex life with her husband.
But on one occasion in 2023, she said she had woken up with restraints and a blindfold on while a man was carrying out a sexual act on her.
Jones told the jury Joanne had believed her husband was performing the sexual act on her when in reality he was “stage managing another unknown person” who was “taking his place without her knowledge”.
Jones told the jury Young had advertised Joanne online, seeking “strangers to come and sleep with his wife”.
“He presented it as a kink for both of them, but there was no information from Joanne herself to support this and the photos he posted of her to advertise his offer showed her inanimate and tied to the bed blindfolded,” Jones told the court.
“The nightcap they shared, it appeared, would be used to plunge her into a state where anything could be done to her by whoever answered and she would be unaware or unable to remember.”