UK man admits to drugging, raping wife over two decades

A man in his 60s pleaded guilty Monday at a court in northwest England to 60 offenses, including drugging and raping his wife over two decades dating to 2004. He had faced trial alongside 12 co-defendants accused of conspiring to abuse the same woman while she was unconscious; those men deny the charges and are set to stand trial in Manchester in the coming weeks, while a 13th co-defendant has already pleaded guilty.

The case is part of a wider pattern of U.K. prosecutions involving drug-facilitated sexual abuse, following the high-profile French conviction of Dominique Pelicot for drugging and raping his former wife over nearly a decade. Separate recent U.K. cases include a London man who pleaded guilty to encouraging abuse of unconscious partners in an online group chat, and another man awaiting sentencing on 32 similar offenses.

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