Ex-football club chief executive admits being involved in sending sedatives to husband who drugged and raped wife

A former football club chief executive has today admitted involvement in sending sedatives to a husband who drugged and raped his wife.Karl Lindsay, 56, pleaded guilty to an offence that involved administration to her of substances in order to stupefy her for the purposes of engaging in sexual acts plus two other serious sexual offences.The admissions, covering between January 2015 and October 2025, were made during a brief hearing at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court this afternoon.The victim was in court for the hearing, sat in the public gallery alongside an adult male relative. Married father-of-five Lindsay had resigned from his role at non-league Taunton Town Football Club, in Somerset, last November. He had previously worked his way up from being the club's kit manager and operations manager.Judge Maurice Greene remanded Lindsay, of Taunton, and who has been married for 34 years, in custody.The husband in the case, from Stockport, Greater Manchester, admitted 62 offences against his wife over more than 20 years including multiple counts of rape. Karl Lindsay, a 56-year-old father of five, enjoys a glass of wine with his wife on holidayHe cannot be named to protect his wife's anonymity. Three more men have pleaded guilty to offences against the woman and nine further men are due to go on trial from Monday at the same court.The accused include an ambulance paramedic once pictured meeting Prince Harry during a royal visit as well as a former nightclub DJ, children's football coach and a taxi driver. Offences committed by the husband include rape, sexual assault and administering a noxious substance between October 2004 and November 2025.Three other men - Graham Brougham, 74, Keith Fotheringham, 59, of Dundee, and Sean Peers, 38, of Stockport - have also pleaded guilty to various sexual offences against the wife, who cannot be named for legal reasons.Brougham, the oldest defendant in the case, admitted one charge of raping the woman in September 2024.Twice-married Brougham, from Northwich, Cheshire, who has two grown-up children and at least one grandchild, used to play in a Steely Dan tribute band and is an amateur carpenter and walking footballer. Graham Brougham, 74, is the oldest of 14 defendants charged over the attacks Sean Peers, 38, pictured outside court on a previous occasion, pleaded guilty to assault by penetration against a woman whose husband has admitted drugging and raping her without her knowledge over a 20-year period One of the men involved in the case, Keith Fotheringham, 59, admitted his role in the abuse and pleaded guilty to four offencesThe remaining defendants, aged between 29 and 70, are due to stand trial from Monday, having denied abusing the same woman between 2018 and 2025.Ambulance paramedic Jonathan Kirk, 43, from Stockport, denies charges of rape, conspiracy to rape and conspiracy to commit assault by penetration.Meanwhile, former DJ Robert Stewart, 70, of Stockport, a divorced father of two and grandfather, denies two rapes and one count of conspiracy to rape.The youngest defendant, Mohammed Sabir, 29, of Heald Green, Stockport, faces five counts: three rapes, conspiracy to rape and conspiracy to commit assault by penetration between 2023 and 2025. He denies them all. Paramedic Jonathan Kirk, 43, pictured meeting Prince Harry in 2011 after riots struck Salford, is among 11 men due to stand trial over their alleged roles in the sexual abuse of the wife Robert Stewart, 70, a divorced father of two and grandfather who used to be a DJ, denies two rapes and one count of conspiracy to rape Married father-of-two Alan Keelan, 42, pictured at a football club awards presentation Dog walker and delivery driver Jordan Wallace, 31, from Stockport, is accused of rapeMarried father-of-two Alan Keelan, 42, from Manchester, works as an accounts clerk and is a coach with Benchill Celtic Junior Football Club, Wythenshawe, one of the city's oldest junior teams.Keelan denies rape, two counts of attempted rape and one of conspiracy to rape.Dog walker and delivery driver Jordan Wallace, 31, from Stockport, denies rape, attempted rape and conspiracy to rape.Father-of-three Philip Wild, 59, of Stockport, a taxi driver, has pleaded not guilty to counts of attempted rape, conspiracy to rape, assault by penetration, conspiracy to commit assault by penetration and sexual assault. Mohammed Sabir, 29, is the youngest defendant in the case and denies five charges Father-of-three Philip Wild, 58, Stockport, a taxi driver, is also accused of five counts Richard Townsend, 38, denies two sexual offences against the same woman as the other men David Graves, 60, of Ilkeston, Derbyshire, denies three chargesRichard Townsend, 38, of Heywood, Greater Manchester, denies one count of conspiracy to commit assault by penetration and one count of assault by penetration.Daniel Rayner, 42, from Whitstable, Kent, faces the same counts as Lindsay and has also pleaded not guilty.And David Graves, 60, of Ilkeston, Derbyshire, denies conspiracy to rape, conspiracy to commit assault by penetration and conspiracy to commit sexual assault.All the defendants are in custody apart from Brougham, Wallace, Kirk, Keelan and Peers, who have been granted bail.The husband, along with Lindsay, Brougham, Fotheringham and Peers, will be sentenced at the end of the trial.