A WOMAN told a court today how she locked herself in a bathroom after discovering her husband had secretly brought a stranger into their home to allegedly sexually assault her.
Joanne Young, who has waived her anonymity, was repeatedly raped by her ex-councillor husband while she was drugged.
Four men are currently on trial accused of sex attacks on the mum-of-three after allegedly being recruited by Young.
Jurors heard how Young would advertise his wife on Craigslist, Grindr and swinging websites – inviting strangers to come and sleep with her.
The ads were accompanied by photos that showed Joanne “inanimate and tied to the bed blindfolded”, it was said.
Sarah Jones KC, prosecuting, told the court Joanne was unaware of the attacks against her with only a “nightmare” sense of another person being present by her bed.
She said the mum, who was described as “emphatically monogamous” with “vanilla” sexual tastes, would often wake up to find herself blindfolded and handcuffed with no idea she had been abused.
Giving evidence today, Joanne told how she woke up blindfolded and restrained one night but believed she was having sex with her husband.
But she said she “felt someone else’s hand on my wrist” and realised it could not be Young’s as he was at the end of the bed.
The mum-of-three said she was “obviously really shocked because you don’t expect someone else to be in your bedroom”.
She continued: “Phil said to the person, ‘Get down’ and the person ducked at the end of the bed.
“I don’t know if they ran off first or I ran to the bathroom first, but I ended up in the bathroom and ran into the bathroom because I think I was just really shocked.
“I didn’t know what to do as there was this man in my house and I was naked, so I was staying in the bathroom for a bit not knowing whether to come out or not.
“Then when I came out, I didn’t hear any noise in the bedroom. I didn’t really know what to do. It’s just such a shock.”
Winchester Crown Court heard Young would advertise for men of “any age, any race but as close to Swindon as possible so that when the circumstances were right they could be seized upon immediately”.
Ms Jones told the court Young “presented it as a kink for both of them” but there was no information from Joanne to support this claim.
The couple would share a nightcap that “plunged Joanne into a state where anything could be done to her by whoever answered and she would be unaware or unable to remember”, it was said.
The court heard that three of the defendants featured in films seized by the police.
The only indication Joanne had was one night when she had been blindfolded and restrained having sex with her husband.
She then “became aware” of someone else’s hand touching her wrist, who jurors heard was the fourth defendant Mohammed Hassan.
He had allegedly exchanged messages with Young on Grindr before going to couple’s home in February 2023.
Ms Jones said Young told the other person to “get down” and Joanne realised the person performing the sex act on her was not her husband.
The prosecutor added: “She is very shortsighted and without her contact lenses or glasses she could not see very clearly – certainly couldn’t see who was ducking down.
“But clearly her mistake was thinking it was her husband giving her oral sex – he was stage managing another unknown person taking his place without her knowledge.
“Her brain struggled to take this in, in the immediate aftermath.”
Jurors heard Joanne told police she remembered being “really terrified, scared of something and I don’t know what”.
Her husband told her the following morning that he had been in online forums and “had invited someone round to watch them having sex”.
The prosecutor told the jury: “It turned out that what she had thought was a literal night terror was not a baseless fear or some kind of nightmare.
“Somehow, Mrs Young, without being able to recall what was being done to her body without any consultation, had a sense that pressure was being placed upon her to agree to others being involved in her and her husband’s intimate life.
“The very idea terrified her. The reality would turn out to be even worse.”
One of the defendants Connor Sanderson-Doyle was 21 when he responded to an advert on Craigslist, Winchester Crown Court heard.
He messaged Young to ask what the “limits were” and what his wife liked, it was said.
Young told him it was a “bit of a quickie f**k and go” before asking if he was “thinking something specific”.
The video, which was uploaded in June 2016, showed Joanne lying on a bed and restrained and she can be heard saying loudly “Ow” as a masked Sanderson-Doyle allegedly sexually assaults her.
Ms Jones added: “The camera has panned out and the oddity of Joanne Young’s position is made clear – she appears almost inert on the bed with the duvet blanketing the top half of her body – the top of her head only visible at the head of the bed and her limbs coming out at the side.
“There are occasional grunts that appear to demonstrate however detached she is from what is happening there is residually some physical awareness but her engagement is entirely lacking.”
The court heard in a “particularly bleak moment”, the camera moves to show Young touching himself as he watches “the stranger crawling over his wife”.
Ms Jones said the video showed “that this woman was clearly under the influence of something that was not only affecting the quality of her speech but her ability to fully direct or co-ordinate her limbs”.
At one point, Joanne “becomes more and more vocally averse to what is being done to her” and squeals: “No let go”.
Sanderson-Doyle later told police he responded to the advert because he was “a young guy trying new and different things”.
He also claimed he thought it was just a married couple “trying to live out whatever their kink is”.
Ms Jones said his alleged actions showed “he was never once considering whether she gave permission – only whether her husband did”.
Richard Wilkins was allegedly seen in “alarmingly clear” footage raping Joanne while she was “shackled” to the bed, blindfolded and snoring.
The 62-year-old then flashed Young a “triumphant grin”, which Ms Jones said was a “smile of complicity, perhaps even glee with the man who is making it all possible by loaning out his wife’s inert body”.
Norman Macksoni is accused of raping Joanne on February 20, 2017, as Young whispered in her ear: “Are you enjoying that baby?”
At one point, Joanne becomes aware of a beeping noise and asks her husband through slurred speech if he is recording her, jurors heard.
Young reassures her he is not before Macksoni allegedly leaves the room after not saying one word to Joanne throughout the seven minute recording.
Jurors were told Young came to the attention of police in July 2023 after “extreme images” were posted to the Kik messaging app.
The ex-Tory councillor had shared pictures and videos of his wife without her consent that showed her “shackled and blindfolded” while being touched by men “plucked from the internet”, it was said.
Ms Jones said when police found the clips, the world Joanne thought she knew “had entirely tilted on its axis”.
She said Joanne had been exposed to sedative drugs over an 18-month period, from April 2023 to August 2024, which she was “entirely unaware” of.
The court was told Philip and Joanne Young “seemed a normal couple with a normal family life” from the outside.
When asked during the police investigation to describe her sex life, Joanne said it was “fairly normal… to all intents and purposes”.
She told officers how the relationship was “always monogamous… physically and emotionally” and said her sexual preferences were “vanilla”.
Joanne said her husband had “some preferences” – for instance he “liked her blindfolded with restraints”, which she did not object to.
The court heard Joanne “liked to be in control of things in her life” and did not even want to have “intimate” photos taken with her husband.
She recalled around 15 years ago that Young asked her if she would ever want to sleep with anyone else but she replied “no”.
Ms Jones told the jury: “Well, if Philip Young heard her, he failed to listen.
“The idea was apparently fixed in his brain and in the absence of her desiring to share his fantasy he set about ensuring a way she would never know if he overrode her issues on this.”
Norman Macksoni, 48, denies one count of rape and Richard Wilkins, 62, has pleaded not guilty to one count of rape and one of assault by penetration.
Connor Sanderson-Doyle, 32, has denied sexual assault by penetration and sexual touching, while Mohammed Hassan, 38, has pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual touching.
Young has pleaded guilty to a total 56 charges and a sixth defendant, Dean Hamilton, 47, has admitted one charge of assault by penetration, two of sexual assault and one of rape.
The trial continues.
