A British woman who was drugged and raped by her husband over a 13-year period told a court she often woke up blindfolded and restrained as four co-defendants stand trial.
WINCHESTER: A woman who was raped and drugged by her then-husband over a 13-year-period said she would often wake up blindfolded and in restraints, a British court heard Wednesday.
Four men are on trial at a court in southern England accused of abusing Joanne Young after being invited by her husband to have sex with her, without her consent, between 2016 and 2023.
Philip Young, 50, has pleaded guilty to multiple sexual offences including drugging and raping Joanne Young, who has waived her right to anonymity.
Two of the four men are charged with rape and other offences, and two with lesser sexual assault charges jointly with Philip Young.
The four men aged between 32 and 62 — who deny the charges — sat impassive in the dock as video interviews of Joanne Young with the police were played in Winchester Crown Court.
She was expected to testify in person in court later Wednesday.
In a July 2024 interview, Joanne Young described the “standard pattern” of her sexual relationship with her husband of two decades, with the couple often having sex after going for drinks with friends or following a nightcap.
“More often than not I’d already be fast asleep and he would instigate sex,” Joanne Young said.
She said she would wake up with a blindfold and in restraints — which she said she did not object to using — but little memory of how “I’d got in that position”.
“It was almost always when I’ve been asleep,” said Young, adding she would wake up “quite dozy”.
She described a night in February 2023 when after drinks in the pub with friends she had gone to bed, only to be woken up to find another man in her room.
“I had been having sex and I felt someone else’s hand on my wrist… It was not the same person.”
The next morning, her husband said he had been looking on “forums” and had “invited someone around the house to watch us have sex”, Joanne Young said.
“I was really upset, shocked someone had been there,” she said. “It was so intrusive, something that I would never ever accept or want.”
The mother-of-three described the couple’s sex life as “normal” and “monogamous”.
“It was occasional and always just the two of us,” she said.
