To me, the scariest kinds of crime stories are the ones where the victims didn’t even realize that they were victims.
In 2017, one British woman discovered that what she thought was a perfectly happy and normal relationship she had with her husband was built on lies and betrayal.
In March 2017, her husband left for work and forgot to take his phone with him.
Like most women in relationships, the woman got curious and looked through his phone. That’s when she stumbled on an app called Video Locker.
At first, she couldn’t get into the app, which increased her suspicions.
When she finally did, she found something horrific. Her husband had saved video recordings of him raping her while she was asleep.
The series — yes, series — of videos were filmed while she was sound asleep in the bed they shared and, sometimes, after they had been drinking. In some of the scenes, he zoomed in to get a closer shot of what he was doing. The abuse had started in September 2016.
After she found the videos, she called her husband and said, “I’ve just watched videos of you raping me on your phone.”
He never came home and turned himself in to the police before the victim got there. He told the officers, “I have had sex with my wife. She didn’t consent. She found out and saw videos on my phone.”
He also pleaded guilty to three counts of rape, one of assault by penetration, one of attempted rape, and one of sexual assault, and was sentenced to nine years in jail. He also was ordered to sign the Sex Offender’s Register for life.
Obviously still struggling to recover from this shocking revelation, the woman told the court that she was still trying to come to terms with what her husband had done to her.
“In March 2017, I discovered my husband had been sexually abusing me,” she said at the time. “I never thought he would be capable of doing what he did. He has completely fooled me. I never want to see him again.”
The recordings were destroyed after the court heard the videos varied in length from 30 seconds to two minutes. Each showed a different occasion of the man raping or abusing his sleeping wife.
“You abused the trust that your wife placed in you,” a court official said at the time.
“Between September 2016 and March this year, you raped and sexually abused her while she was incapable of giving consent to your actions. I take the view you took advantage of the fact that she was in drink and a heavy sleeper. You did so for your own sexual gratification and treated her as an object for your fantasies, disregarding her wishes or needs.”
The husband, who was in his 30s, had no previous convictions and was thought of highly by his friends and colleagues.
Sadly, this kind of case is not uncommon. Marital rape is something that some people even believe is condoned by the Bible.
