'Depraved' rapist filmed attacks on unconscious women

Nicholas Moxham was found guilty after a five-week trial

A man who secretly filmed himself raping unconscious women has been found guilty of a raft of "depraved and abhorrent" offences including prostitution and slavery.

Nicholas Moxham, of Heaton Chapel in Stockport, had recruited women as sex workers after "loitering around homeless shelters" in 2020, police said.

The 52-year-old covertly recorded himself and others raping or sexually assaulting them, before he was arrested in 2021.

Moxham was found guilty of a total of 32 charges for a range of offences after a five-week trial at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court.

Moxham filmed his offending with secret cameras placed in items like pens

These included six counts of rape, one of attempted rape, six of controlling prostitution for gain, and one count of requiring a person to perform forced or compulsory labour.

He was also found guilty of three counts of assault by penetration and 13 counts of voyeurism.

Moxham was caught after witnesses reported a man had been seen with sex workers and "loitering near homeless shelters" in 2020.

Greater Manchester Police said he recruited six women and arranged for others to meet them at his home and a separate property in Longsight, Manchester.

He used secret spyhole cameras hidden in items like pens to film the women, and stored the recordings - later attempting to destroy evidence by throwing a hard drive out of his bedroom window as police entered his house.

Police said Moxham tried to throw hard drives out of a window when arrested

Footage seized after police raided Moxham's Stockport home in August 2021 showed him raping or sexually assaulting women, sometimes while they were unconscious.

A "pale and malnourished" woman was also found in his living room during the search, with "immediate safeguarding measures" put in place to protect her, police said.

Det Sgt Lee Attenborough said the case was "one of the most horrific and upsetting" the force's officers have had to deal with.

Moxham is a "controlling and predatory sex offender" he said, adding some of his victims "won’t even know they were targeted" due to his "calculated and covert methods".

“His offending was well-planned and continued while he was under investigation, even boasting to one of his victims that he was too clever for police."

He is due to be sentenced on 12 June.