Nine men go on trial accused of abusing a Stockport wife who was drugged by her husband for two decades

Prosecutor Louise Oakley KC told Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court that the husband, a man in his sixties who cannot be named, began inviting men to their Stockport home while his wife lay unconscious, drugged with a "cocktail of stupefying drugs", filming the abuse and posting footage online "within minutes". Police recovered more than one million photographs and videos from his Samsung phone cataloguing the abuse over more than 20 years. The nine defendants, who all deny the charges, were described as having "derived sexual gratification and enjoyment" from the "use and abuse" of the woman.

Among the nine is Jonathan Kirk, 43, a senior paramedic who once met Prince Harry, accused of two rapes; Robert Stewart, 70, a retired DJ; and Mohammed Sabir, 28, a recruitment agency worker.

Three further men — Sean Peers, Keith Fotheringham and Graham Brougham — have already admitted abusing the woman at earlier hearings.

In a separate but similar case at Winchester Crown Court, Connor Sanderson-Doyle, 32, told jurors he had "no indication" that Joanne Young was drugged when he answered her husband Philip Young's online advert for sex.