An ex-Tory councillor sought strangers online to have sex with his wife after he drugged her “into the state where anything could be done to her by whoever answered”, a court heard.
Philip Young, 50, formerly a Swindon borough councillor, has admitted repeatedly drugging and raping his former partner, Joanne Young, who has waived her legal right to anonymity.
At Winchester Crown Court on Tuesday morning, four men – Norman Macksoni, Richard Wilkins, Connor Sanderson-Doyle and Mohammed Hassan – went on trial accused of sexually assaulting Ms Young.
Sarah Jones, KC, prosecuting, told the jury that the case centred on whether it was “ever reasonable” to have sex or to begin to have sexual contact with an unknown woman without checking with her first.
Ms Young thought she had a normal sex life with her husband, Ms Jones KC said, but in reality her husband posted adverts on online swinging forums inviters strangers to “come and sleep with his wife at any age, any grace”.
Ms Jones KC said: “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.
“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.”
Mr Young has already pleaded guilty to charges of voyerism, rape, administering a substance with intent, penetration, sexual assault and publishing an obscene article.
The jury was told how Mr and Ms Young had got together in 2002 and appeared to be a “normal couple with a normal family life”. Ms Young had described her sex life as “fairly normal”, and she had told her husband 15 years ago that she would never want to sleep with anyone else.
Ms Jones KC said: “Well, if Philip Young heard her, he failed to listen. The idea was apparently fixed in his brain and in the absence of her desiring to share his fantasy he set about ensuring a way she would never know if he overrode her issues on this.”
The jury heard how police were alerted when a packet with a sedative drug mailed from India to Mr Young was intercepted. However, Mr Young “professed to be ignorant” and said he had not ordered it.
Ms Jones KC, however, told the jury that Ms Young had been exposed to sedative drugs over a near 18-month period, from April 2023 to August 2024, which she was “entirely unaware”.
The first indication “her marriage was not what she had believed” came in 2023, said Ms Jones KC, when one night while having sex while blindfolded with her husband in her bedroom, she became aware of someone else’s hand touching her wrist.
When she tried to take off the blindfold or wristband she was stopped, and she heard her husband tell another person to “get down”, said Ms Jones KC, who said Mr Young had been “stage managing” another person giving her oral sex.
The following morning, Mr Young apologised and said he had been in online forums and had invited someone round to watch them having sex.
Ms Jones KC said: “It turned out, of course, that she had stumbled upon the edges of a far greater issue in her relationship. That Phil’s behaviour had not been limited to inviting a single man in simply for the purposes of watching the two of them having sex.
“What she had considered to be already a gross invasion, a betrayal of her trust was far, far more invasive and shocking.”
The jury heard how police began investigating Mr Young after being alerted to images uploaded on social media. When attending his home in July 2023, they found devices which showed he had been sharing intimate images of his wife.
“The world she thought she knew had entirely tilted on its axis. The relationship she thought she had appears now to be wholly unreal – she does not even know what she doesn’t know,” Ms Jones KC said.
Turning to a defendant in the trial, Sanderson-Doyle, 32, of Swindon, who denies sexual assault and sexual touching, Ms Jones KC said he responded to an advert in 2016, before going to the couple’s home.
When there, the masked defendant allegedly sexually assaulted her on a bed while being filmed.
Ms Jones KC said a video showed “that this woman was clearly under the influence of something that was not only affecting the quality of her speech but her ability to fully direct or co-ordinate her limbs”.
When interviewed by police, Sanderson-Doyle said he partially undressed and “touched her a bit”, but left when “he got the vibe she wan’t enjoying it or comfortable and stopped”, Ms Jones KC said.
Wilkins, 62, of Toothill, Swindon, denies one count of rape and one assault by penetration. Ms Jones KC said the alleged offence happened in 2016, when he was filmed with her as she could be heard snoring. Mr Young, Ms Jones KC said, could be heard appearing to offer directions while “clearly holding the camera”.
Macksoni, 48, of Sharnbrook, Bedfordshire, denies one count of rape. He, Ms Jones KC told the jury, was also being recorded by Mr Young while carrying out the alleged offence while Ms Young was blindfolded.
During the incident, Ms Young’s speech was “somewhere slurred and confused”.
Concluding her opening, Ms Jones KC said it was likely each defendant would say they believed Ms Young was consenting sexual activity at the time.
She added: “The Crown dispute this – given the state Mrs Young was quite apparently in and the circumstances of their meeting, we say these defendants did not believe that she was consenting nor would any such belief have been reasonable.”
The trial continues.
