Former Tory councillor advertised his drugged wife to strangers online for 13 years, court hears as four men stand trial

Philip Young, 50, a former Conservative borough councillor from Swindon, pleaded guilty earlier this year to 56 counts of sexual offending against his wife Joanne Young, 49. He had spiked her drinks with drugs and recorded her on more than 200 occasions without her knowledge or consent. Joanne, who has waived her anonymity, told the court she was "emphatically monogamous" with "vanilla" tastes and had had no idea she was being abused across a 13-year period. Four men now stand trial at Winchester Crown Court, accused of travelling to the family home and assaulting her while she was blindfolded, shackled and sedated.

Prosecutor Sarah Jones KC said Young sourced strangers 'any age, any race' through swinging sites, Grindr and Craigslist, uploading photographs of Joanne 'inanimate and tied to the bed'.

Young watched and filmed the abuse, 'relishing their degradation of her', and had published obscene material on more than 500 occasions, the court heard.

Joanne said she discovered the attacks only when her husband was arrested: 'The world she thought she knew had entirely tilted on its axis.'