A renowned news network in the USA, revealed a perverse practice carried out by several men towards their own partners.
This included drugs, sexual abuse and dissemination of private information, as well as improper payments and conversations.
were collected testimonials of several victimsbut it is believed that it is only the tip of the ball that involves a larger number of people.
The tests that revealed the horror: «Your wife will not feel anything and will not remember anything»
While doing his job for As Equals a series on gender inequality, the CNN uncovered an incredible plot that included drug administration, money, sexual abuse and complicity.
The channel discovered a website and a chat in which material was shared about men rape their partners while they were sleeping, after being drugged.
As a precedent for this form of abuse, we remember the case of Dominique Pelicot and 50 other men in the south of France. Pelicot, through an alleged dating website, specifically in a chat room called «Without Their Knowledge», managed to contact dozens of men to instigate the rapes of his then wife, Giselewhile she was drugged and unconscious.
Now, CNN’s months-long investigation has brought to light a hidden world online where the commodification and amplification of sexual violence against women is flourishing.
A pornographic website, Motherless.com, houses more than 20,000 videos of so-called «sleep-related» content» uploaded by users, accumulating hundreds of thousands of views.
The page had about 62 million views only in February and its main audience is in the United States. So-called «sleep» content is categorized using descriptive tags such as #fainted and #eyecheck.
Within the Motherless «dream» community, first reported on by German investigative journalists Isabell Beer and Isabel Ströh, members exchange tips on how to get high to their partners.
Besides, in a Telegram chat group called “Zzz”to which a Motherless user had linked on the web, did the same. During the course of CNN’s investigation, the group «Zzz» was removed from the messaging platform.
According to the American site, a Motherless user claimed to run a business selling and shipping «sleeping liquids» to any address in the world. The man indicated on his Telegram account that a bottle of the liquid, which, according to him, was tasteless and odorless, cost 150 euros. «Your wife won’t feel anything and won’t remember anything,» he added.
While platforms vary, within these groups, video is the dominant element. Some users announced live broadcasts, where they showed the abuse of drugged women in real time, for 20 dollars per viewer, with cryptocurrencies as the preferred means of payment.
The men who participate in such maneuvers operate protected by the anonymity of the Internet. But they also find a sense of community and wicked camaraderie, as they normalize abuse. CNN managed to uncover the plot after «Piotr«, one of the members of this community, will provide his testimony.
Piotr also shared his address, but refused to arrange a meeting with the channel’s journalists. However, to verify his identity, CNN representatives traveled to a city in Poland that the man had indicated as his place of residence.
There they found Piotr and his wife, Zoe Wattsat a local restaurant. However, in order not to expose them, they did not bother them, but instead contacted the police to inform them of what they had discovered.
When Watts found out that her husband, to whom she had been married for 16 years, had been crushing her son’s sleeping medicine and pouring it into her tea, then raping her while she was unconscioushis world collapsed.
«We worry about who’s coming up behind us, who’s walking down the street, or even who’s friending us on Facebook. We worry about going to our car late at night in a parking lot, but we don’t worry about who’s sleeping next to us. I didn’t realize I had to,» Watts said.
Her then-husband’s confession took place on a random Sunday after the couple, who have four children, returned from church. “He listed a series of his misdeeds… like it was, you know, a shopping list,” Watts told CNN.
“He just said… ‘I’ve been using our son’s sleeping medication to put in your last cup of tea at night, to tie you up, take pictures of you and rape you’”, he said to journalist Saskya Vandoorne.
After learning what happened, Watts became ill and was unable to leave his house for many days. Some time later, after suffering a panic attack, he told his sister and his mother immediately called the police. Although he believes pressing charges was the right decision, it was a harrowing experience at the time.
The woman said one of the many difficult aspects of her ordeal has been confronting people’s assumptions about marital abuse, although she acknowledges that they are based on misinformation and unconscious bias.
“They told me: ‘Yes, but he’s your husband’or ‘but you weren’t awake’. ‘So… it’s not the same as being taken to an alley, is it?’”
Now, her ex-husband is serving an 11-year sentence for rape, penetrative sexual assault and drug administration.
Other testimonies and the denial of the accused: «That didn’t happen, you’re crazy»
In the city of Wigan, in the northwest of England, Amanda Stanhope, who was also raped by her ex-partner, spoke to CNN.
The first thing she said is that it was Gisele’s strength that inspired her to speak out. “She broke the silence and the shame… if she could do it, I can too,” he said.
Over a period of five years, Stanhope said she often fell asleep without remembering how, and woke up with bruises on her body and in different clothes, with a towel underneath, without remembering why.
Finally, she realized her husband’s abuse and asked him to stop. Instead, according to Stanhope, he was the victim of psychological manipulation.
«Then he would turn on me and say, ‘Well, you’re taking too much medication. You must be imagining it.’ That didn’t happen. You are crazy. You’re crazy,’” he said.
«So, even though I was 100% sure that something had happened… he was trying to change my reality, (saying) that it hadn’t happened, even though the physical signs were there,» she added.
With the support of his brother, Stanhope finally went to the police.
His ex-partner She was accused of rape and sexual assault. He committed suicide before the case went to trial.
Now, the woman posts videos on social media to raise awareness about this type of abuse, encouraging others to trust their instincts.
For its part, Valentinaa survivor — a mother of two who lives in northern Italy and who asked CNN not to use her real name — said she, too, has a hard time trusting people.
«I cannot conceive that a woman can be treated like slaughterhouse meat. Because, in the end, that is what I was,» she said, reflecting on the horror of discovering videos that her husband, to whom she was married for 20 years, had filmed, in which he was seen abusing her after having drugged her with alcohol and sedatives.
“I was lucky to find the videos because honestly it would have been a little… hard to believe since it didn’t have any brands on it,” he added.
Valentina does not remember the abuse, but it left her with psychological scars. “No matter how much you try to ignore it, it is always there, at your side: the experience you have lived,” he said, adding that “all it takes is a bed, a camera, a different smell” to trigger it.
In 2021, Valentina’s ex-husband was sentenced to eight years in prison for multiple aggravated sexual assaults. Years later, she still struggles to understand his motivation.
