Pensioner pleads guilty to raping woman drugged by husband

A pensioner from Cheshire has pleaded guilty to the rape of a woman whose husband drugged her and invited other men to sexually assault her while she was unconscious.

Graham Brougham, 74, pleaded guilty to rape at a hearing at Manchester Minshull Street crown court on Thursday afternoon.

The husband, who cannot be named in order to protect the anonymity of his wife, has already admitted to more than 60 offences, and will be sentenced at a later date.

The victim sat in the public gallery of the court as Brougham entered his guilty plea. She turned to watch him as he stood in the dock, while a relative sitting beside her held her hand throughout.

Brougham, who was set to be the oldest defendant on trial, has been on bail throughout the proceedings, and Judge Maurice Greene again granted him bail ahead of sentence.

However, addressing Brougham’s barrister, he warned that the defendant should not “be under any illusion,” as his “sentence will be custody, and a long time in custody”.

Prior to his arrest Brougham, who lives in Northwich in Cheshire, had played in a 1970s tribute band, and was a member of a walking football team.

Two other men who were charged alongside the husband have also pleaded guilty at earlier hearings.

Keith Fotheringham, 59, from Dundee, a former technician at the city’s university, admitted a number of offences earlier this year, and last month Sean Peers, 38, pleaded guilty to one count of assault by penetration.

Ten men are due to stand trial at the same court, denying a range of offences including rape and attempted rape, which are alleged to have taken place between 2018 and November 2025.

They are Philip Wild, 59, from Stockport; Jordan Wallace, 31, from Manchester; Alan Keelan, 42, from Manchester; Jonathan Kirk, 43, from Stockport; Robert Stewart, 70, from Stockport; Mohammed Sabir, 28, of no fixed abode; Richard Townsend, 37, from Heywood in Greater Manchester; Karl Lindsay, 55, from Taunton in Somerset; Daniel Rayner, 42, from Whitstable in Kent; and David Graves, 60, from Ilkeston in Derbyshire.

A jury has already been sworn in, and the trial was due to get under way on Monday, but it has been delayed for legal reasons.

The prosecution is now scheduled to begin its case in early November, with the trial set to conclude by the end of January next year.