A former Tory councillor 'advertised' his wife on Craigslist, Grindr and swinging websites so she could be sexually abused by strangers in a drugged stupor, a court has heard.

Philip Young pleaded guilty to almost 50 sex offences against his ex-wife Joanne Young - who has waived her right to anonymity - at Winchester Crown Court earlier this year.

The mother-of-three had been repeatedly drugged by the 50-year-old business consultant so he could carry out the string of assaults over a period of 13 years.

Now four men - Norman Macksoni, 48, Connor Sanderson-Doyle, 32, Richard Wilkins, 62, and Mohammed Hassan, 38 - are standing trial accused of assaulting Ms Young as she lay drugged, bound and blindfolded. 

The jury was told that while Mr Young has pleaded guilty and was not on trial, this did not indicate guilt in the cases of the four defendants.

The men, who deny the charges ranging from sexual touching to rape, are alleged to have carried out the assaults on separate occasions between 2016 and 2023 after being recruited by Young online.

Prosecutor Sarah Jones KC said that Ms Young, 49, was 'shackled and blindfolded' as she was abused by men 'plucked from the internet' while her husband watched or filmed her ordeal.

'He sought strangers to come and sleep with his wife - any age, any race – but as close to Swindon as possible so that when the circumstances were right they could be seized upon immediately,' she said.

'He presented it as a kink for both of them but there was no information from Joanne herself to support this.' 

She said he uploaded photos of Ms Young to 'advertise his offer' which showed his wife 'inanimate and tied to the bed blindfolded'.

Ms Young, the court heard, was 'emphatically monogamous' and described herself as 'vanilla'.

While she said she had complied with her husband's 'preferences' to blindfold and restrain her, she had never agreed to sleep with anyone else. 

The court heard he had tested her boundaries by asking if she would be open to sleeping with someone else.

'He asked if she would ever want to sleep with someone else, she replied very clearly 'No' and she said 'he made some joke about, um, as long as I could watch you'. There was no way he would ever think it was acceptable at all,' Ms Jones said.

The prosecutor told the court that Young became fixated on his desire to fulfil his fantasy of watching others have sex with the mother of his children and began drugging his wife.

'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,' she said.

The court heard that police intercepted a packet of sedatives at customs enroute to Young from India in 2015. He denied all knowledge of them when visited by officers.

Expert analysis showed his wife was exposed to sedative drugs over a significant period over various months in 2023 and 2024. 

Ms Jones KC told the court that Young was trying to obtain drugs that could used alongside alcohol to send his wife 'into a deep sleep' leaving her 'disorientated, unaware of her surroundings and unlikely to be able to recall what happened'.

'We don't know how regularly this was done or to what level but the picture that is building is one of considerable danger to Joanne Young,' she added.

Jurors were told it was not the Crown's case that the defendants had administered the substances to Ms Young. 

However, prosecutor Ms Jones KC said the 'effects' on her 'were apparent'.

The court heard that disgraced former Conservative Swindon councillor filmed three of the four men, who were not known to Ms Young, as they allegedly assaulted his wife.

In the video of the alleged assault by Mr Wilkins in July 2016, Ms Young was said to have been 'snoring' as she was violated on her own bed.

'She can be heard snoring. She is quite evidently asleep,' Ms Jones KC said, adding that Mr Wilkins and Young can be heard communicating in whispers.

In another seven-minute video Macksoni is recorded by Mr Young allegedly raping Ms Young at their Swindon home in February 2017, the court heard.

Ms Jones KC said Macksoni, a former singer, had not 'uttered one word' to Ms Young in the entire recording.

She added that Ms Young's speech was 'slurred and confused' as she asked her husband if she was being recorded after hearing a beeping sound.

Sanderson-Doyle was 21 when he responded to an advert placed by Young on Craigslist, the court heard, with Young sending explicit instructions on what his wife did and did not like, describing it as a 'bit of a quickie'.

Ms Jones KC told the court Sanderson-Doyle was identified as a man captured on video wearing a balaclava in June 2016 as he allegedly assaulted Ms Young while she lay 'shackled on the bed'; she was heard to say 'no' on the recording.

Upon being arrested in May 2025, he allegedly told officers that he believed he was dealing with a married couple 'trying to live out whatever their kink is', but that he got the 'vibe she wasn't enjoying it or comfortable and stopped'.

He told police that Young told him 'I don't think she's feeling it tonight' and so he left.

There is no video evidence of the alleged incident involving Hassan, whom the court heard was traced through explicit messages he exchanged with Young on Grindr.

Prosecutors alleged that he was invited into the couple's bedroom without Ms Young's consent in February 2023. 

Ms Young was wearing a blindfold during sex with her husband, but was allegedly alerted to his presence after he touched her on the wrist.

Ms Jones said: 'She said she was trying to take the wristband or the blindfold off… and a hand had intervened to stop her.

'She said: 'I was obviously really shocked because, obviously you don't expect someone else to be in your bedroom. Phil said to the person, "Get down," and the person ducked at the end of the bed.'

The following morning, Young was said to have apologised and admitted he had 'invited someone round the house to watch us have sex' without her permission.

Ms Jones added: 'It turned out of course that she had stumbled upon the edges of a far greater issue in her relationship. What she had considered to be already a gross invasion, a betrayal of her trust was far, far more invasive and shocking.'

Mr Young then came to the attention of police a few months later after 'extreme images' were posted to a messaging app and the videos were discovered, the court heard.

'The world she thought she knew had entirely tilted on its axis,' the prosecutor said.

Ms Jones said the defendants were each expected to claim they believed Ms Young was consenting to the sexual activity - but argued that this defence was their 'last desperate throw of the dice'. 

She told jurors they must consider if the men were hiding behind what they said her then husband had told them or if they 'simply did not care'. 

'In respect of all four defendants none now suggest that Mrs Young was actually consenting. Each agrees that she was not,' she said. 

'But what each defendant is likely to say is that they believed at the time that she was consenting and to argue that such a belief was reasonable in the circumstances.'

'It is their last desperate throw of the dice to convince certainly you and perhaps even themselves that they are not rapists or sexual offenders.

The prosecutor continued: 'They wanted to enact their fantasy and Phil Young's fantasy and they did not care about Jo Young's feelings at all.'

Young admitted 14 counts of voyeurism, 11 of rape, 11 of administering a substance with intent, seven of assault by penetration, four of sexual assault and one of publishing an obscene article at Winchester Crown Court in January.

He recorded his 49-year-old ex-wife doing private acts for his own sexual gratification without her consent more than 200 times between 2010 and 2024.

He published the 'obscene' material – including the non-consensual intimate photographs and videos of Ms Young – more than 500 times. 

In May this year the 50-year-old, who more recently lived in Enfield, north London, also pleaded guilty to three charges of making indecent images of children and one of possessing prohibited images of children in July 2024.

He also admitted four charges of possessing an extreme pornographic image between January 2019 and January 2024. 

Judge Mr Justice Saini told the jury that while Mr Young had pleaded guilty to offences, this did not indicate guilt in the cases of the four defendants on trial.

'The evidence against Mr Young is different in part to the evidence against these offences,' he said.

'For example, as you will hear, Mr Young has pleaded guilty to many offences committed against Joanne Young over many years, which includes admitting that he administered drugs to Mrs Young in order to commit sexual offences against her.

'By contrast, it is not suggested that any of these defendants administer any substance to Mrs Young or were present when it was administered although the prosecution says it effects were apparent.'

Macksoni, of Sharnbrook, Bedfordshire, has denied one count of rape, while Wilkins, of Toothill, Swindon, Wiltshire, has pleaded not guilty to one count of rape and one of assault by penetration.

Sanderson-Doyle, of Swindon, has denied sexual assault by penetration and sexual touching, while Hassan, also of Swindon, has pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual touching.

A sixth defendant, Dean Hamilton, 47, of Street, Somerset, has admitted one charge of assault by penetration, two of sexual assault and one of rape. 

Young and Hamilton will be sentenced at the conclusion of the trial, which is expected to last up to four weeks.

Young served as a Conservative councillor on Swindon Borough Council from 2007 until he stepped down in 2010, citing a desire to spend more time with his family and to focus on his own business.

Since then, he has been the director of several companies and was most recently the chief operating officer at a consultancy firm.

The trial continues.