After years of domestic abuse, a young mother awoke in the middle of the night to discover a man raping her while her husband watched
NEED TO KNOW
- In 2021, “Lucy” awoke to a man raping her in her bed while her husband watched, she said in an interview with ITV
- Her husband was arrested and convicted on multiple counts for drugging his wife and then inviting men over to rape her while she was unconscious
- Lucy said police later told her that her husband had been drugging her with car cleaning fluid
In 2021, a British woman found herself in a terrifying situation — and now, she's speaking out after her husband was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
"I woke to a stranger on top of me raping me and my husband in the room watching over," the woman, identified as "Lucy," told ITV. "The stranger got up and ran off quite quickly, and then I barricaded myself in my children's room and called my father … and called the police."
She said despite her husband being convicted, her journey is far from over.
"I spend every day of my life in fear and worry. But more than that, I feel upset that these men are walking free," she told the outlet, adding that she's now searching for the men her husband invited to rape her as she lay unconscious just a few feet away from her sleeping children.
Her husband confessed to his crimes in a series of jail phone calls, recordings of which were obtained by ITV.
The number of men who may have sexually assaulted her is unclear, said Lucy, who noted that her husband was drugging her "two to three times a week for a year" and that "evidence from emails and so forth shows that it was going on for many many years prior."
So, she added, there "could be hundreds" of men.
"Everyday I walk past people and wonder; if someone looks at me for too long, I'm concerned [that] maybe that's one of them," Lucy said, per the outlet.
Shortly after her husband's arrest, Lucy learned from police that he had been drugging her with car cleaning fluid.
"I would wake up and things would hurt in my body and I wondered why I became so unwell for years. I look back at photos [and] I don't even recognize myself," Lucy said.
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Soon, she found herself so sick that she even began wetting the bed.
"I wouldn't be able to sit up and sip water," she recalled, adding that one night she said to her husband: "I think I'm going to die tonight."
She asked him to watch over her as she slept that evening.
In a call from prison, Lucy said he later admitted that he called a man over to rape her that night.
Lucy told ITV she's glad her husband is behind bars for his crimes, but questions why police did not do more to try and track down any of the men her husband invited into their home to rape her while she lay unconscious.
She said she was disappointed police did not fingerprint her bed frame back in 2021 despite "being aware that a stranger had been in my home that night."
She told the outlet she kept the bed frame for years, even moving to a new home with it.
According to ITV, police later identified DNA from multiple individuals, some of which remain unmatched profiles.
The police force which investigated the case said in a statement to the outlet: “One man has received a significant prison sentence for the crimes he committed against this victim, but our enquiries are continuing and we remain committed to doing all we can to identify any other perpetrators who carried out offences against her.”
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