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When police discovered the man, he was a bloody, beaten shell, a patchwork of old wounds blended into new — and still he hesitated to reveal his tormentors.

“I don’t want to get them in trouble,” he said pitifully, after officers found him huddled in a cramped bedroom closet, naked, shaking and covered in sores.

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It was the final scene in one of Toronto’s most vicious crimes, one that remained hidden from public view until the two accused — the victim’s wife and her new boyfriend — pleaded guilty in a downtown courthouse this week to a host of charges, from aggravated assault and sexual assault to confinement and failing to provide the necessities of life. The pair, whose names cannot be revealed after a publication ban was placed over any information that could identify the victim, will be scheduled for sentencing in the coming months.

When the man was finally rescued from the apartment all three shared in northwest Toronto, he had lost about 50 pounds and had two collapsed lungs, facial bone damage and five fractured ribs. His body was a maze of burns, bruises and razor marks; his ear cartilages had necrotized, and pus and plasma seeped from his skull. Doctors found remnants of thread on parts of his body, where his wife’s boyfriend had attempted to seal his wounds with a sewing needle and thread.