Man guilty of drugging and raping three vulnerable men

02.02.2022 - 16:13 / manchestereveningnews.co.uk

A man has been convicted of befriending, drugging and raping three vulnerable men.

Nico Baxter, 38, met each of the men on separate occasions and sexually assaulted them whilst they were in a state of drug-induced unconsciousness.

Baxter, of no fixed abode, denied seven offences of rape, but was found guilty following a trial at Minshull Street Crown Court.

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The first man was said to have struggled with drug addiction for a while, and the recent death of his girlfriend had ‘emotionally devastated’ him.

“On Monday December 16, 2019, he was out in search of some diazepam tablets on Bury New Road,” prosecutor Amanda Johnson said.

“He was walking home when he bumped into an acquaintance who he knew from the pharmacy, and she wanted to buy some illegal drugs.”

After asking the man if he could call his dealer, he went back to his house in Blackley, alongside the woman and Baxter who had been with her at the time.

The three of them then took crack cocaine, but sometime after taking the drug the man had an epileptic fit and after he recovered, the woman and Baxter left his house.

Later that day Baxter returned with a different woman and the man was again asked to call his dealer about buying more drugs.

After taking more drugs the man went up to bed, leaving the woman and Baxter downstairs.

“He fell asleep and was awoken by the defendant who had come into his room uninvited, and the prosecution say, got on top of him in bed,” Ms Johnson continued.

“He woke up feeling a pain - the defendant had pulled his boxer shorts off, he felt like he couldn’t move, felt powerless and struggled to resist what was happening to him.

“He froze,