UK man admits 32 sexual offences against girlfriend

A UK man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to 32 sexual offences against his girlfriend while she was allegedly drugged or asleep over more than a decade.

The man, who is in his 40s, cannot be named because his girlfriend has lifelong anonymity as a victim of sexual offences. A judge in Northampton, central England, told him he faced a possible life sentence.

The charges included rape, sexual assault and assault by penetration against his girlfriend when she was allegedly drugged or asleep. The court was told that some of the offences were recorded. Ten offences, dating from January 2014 to September 2025, were committed together with an unknown person, the court was told. The number of people involved was not revealed at the hearing.

The man's defence team disputed the prosecution's position that the victim was drugged during all the offences. Prosecutor Alexandra Felix said the prosecution maintained that all the offences were committed while the victim had been drugged and stupefied.

Judge David Herbert told the defendant, who is due to be sentenced on September 18, that a very substantial prison sentence was inevitable. The judge said he would consider whether a life sentence was appropriate.

Andrew Hopkinson, from the Crown Prosecution Service, which brings public prosecutions in England and Wales, called the case a sustained campaign of abuse.

The case is the latest in the UK and elsewhere to resemble the recent trial in France of Dominique Pelicot, who drugged and raped his then-wife Gisele for nearly a decade alongside strangers.

The source says multiple investigations into alleged drugging and raping of long-term partners, known as drug-facilitated sexual abuse, are under way in the UK. In Stockport in northwest England, the husband of a woman who was allegedly drugged and sexually assaulted is set to stand trial in September alongside 12 other men accused of taking part in the sexual abuse.

In January, a British man pleaded guilty to drugging and raping his ex-wife over a 13-year period, with five other men also charged with sexual offences against the woman. Four of those five men pleaded not guilty at a hearing in southeast England. The victim in that case, Joanne Young, waived her right to anonymity in a move similar to Gisele Pelicot's decision.