{"id":75557,"date":"2026-07-03T04:18:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T04:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/75557\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T04:18:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T04:18:15","slug":"uk-uncovers-truly-international-network-of-men-drugging-and-assaulting-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/75557\/","title":{"rendered":"UK uncovers ‘truly international’ network of men drugging and assaulting women"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eight people have been arrested as part of a probe into a “truly international” network of men drugging and sexually assaulting women they know, the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The alleged offences are reminiscent of the high-profile case of Frenchwoman Gisele Pelicot, who was drugged and raped by her then-husband and strangers for almost a decade.<\/p>\n

Since the 2025 trial and conviction of her ex-husband Dominique Pelicot, similar cases have come to light across Europe, from Germany to the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

The NCA, which probes international and serious organised crime, said it had uncovered a global network of predominantly men suspected of similar offences, known as organised drug-facilitated sexual assault.<\/p>\n

Dominique Pelicot found guilty of raping his wife<\/a><\/p>\n

The court also found all of the 50 other defendants guilty of various crimes, with 47 found guilty of raping Gis\u00e8le Pelicot.<\/p>\n

Following a 2025 probe by German journalists into an online forum being used to facilitate such offences, the British crime agency found “a truly international network with group members identified in dozens of countries spanning every continent”, said NCA deputy director Nigel Leary.<\/p>\n

As a result of the NCA probe into the platform, which was not named, eight people in the UK have been arrested. There are a total of 14 separate investigations ongoing in the UK and abroad.<\/p>\n

Last week, investigators from Brazil, Canada, France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Spain, the United States and Europol met in London to share information on possible cases, said the agency.<\/p>\n

‘Increasingly organised’\u00a0<\/p>\n

The agency said it had identified more than 270 individuals linked to the forum and its offshoots.<\/p>\n

“Drug-facilitated sexual assault is no longer isolated behaviour, but increasingly organised,” said NCA deputy director Nigel Leary, adding that it was being enabled by digital platforms.<\/p>\n

“The scale of what we have seen so far is deeply concerning,” Leary told journalists at a briefing, adding that such crimes were often “under-detected and under-reported” because the victim may not remember the abuse as a result of being sedated.<\/p>\n

It’s a “serious and evolving threat, rooted in domestic abuse,” said Helen Millichap, director of the UK’s National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection.<\/p>\n

The online and connected nature of the abuse means the “dimensions are changing”, added Ms Millichap.<\/p>\n

Multiple investigations into such organised drugging and sexual offences are underway in the UK.<\/p>\n

In Stockport, Manchester in the north-west, 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.<\/p>\n

AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eight people have been arrested as part of a probe into a “truly international” network of men drugging…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[61,34173,34171,20542,79,34172,5,6],"class_list":["post-75557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-crime","tag-drug-facilitated-sexual-assault","tag-gisele-pelicot","tag-nca","tag-rape","tag-sex-assault-forums","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116854122531178587","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}