Brighton and Hove Albion player Anton Rodgers and three other
footballers are accused of attacking a woman in a hotel room
Accused: (L-R) Steve Cook, Anton Rodgers, George Barker and
Lewis Dunk
Four footballers took lewd photos as they sexually
assaulted a drunken teenage girl in a hotel bedroom, a court heard today.
The players – one of them the son
of Liverpool FC manager
Brendan Rodgers – took the pictures of themselves performing
sexual acts on the half-naked 19-year-old as a “record of their
conquest”, the Old Bailey heard.
Anton Rodgers, 19, and three other players are accused of
attacking a drunken woman in a hotel room after celebrating a cup
final win.
Brighton and Hove Albion players Rodgers, Lewis Dunk, 21, and
George Barker, 21, and former teammate Steve Cook, 21, who now
plays for Bournemouth, all deny the charges.
The Old Bailey heard how the four footballers took pictures of
themselves sexually assaulting the 19-year-old woman to have a
“permanent record of their conquest”.
The sportsmen allegedly took the young woman back to their hotel
room and assaulted her after celebrating victory for their club in
the Sussex Senior Cup.
Rodgers, Barker and Dunk, all of Brighton; and Cook, of St
Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, also deny voyeurism.
The offences were said to have happened at the Jury's Inn
Hotel in Brighton in July 2011.
Richard Barton, prosecuting, said:
"This case concerns how a group of young professional footballers,
intoxicated after a night out together celebrating a cup final
victory, took advantage of a young woman, who herself was
intoxicated and who was obviously in a vulnerable
condition.
"After taking her back to a hotel
room, they waited until she had fallen asleep, and so was unable to
resist, and then sexually assaulted her in a deliberately
humiliating way.
"They compounded the humiliation
by taking photographs of themselves doing so in order to
have a permanent record of their conquest."
He added: "They did so for their
own gratification,
intending to share the photographs between themselves and they may
have done so to share with others at their football club.
"These were the actions of a group of arrogant young men
labouring under the misguided belief that by reason of their
privileged position they could with impunity take advantage of a
young woman in this way, because even if she realised what they had
done to her, she would not dare report it."
He said the teenager - described as chatty and bubbly - did not
tell police for six months "through fear of repercussions".
She finally made a complaint about being "repeatedly taunted"
about the incident by another footballer at the club.
Liverpool boss Rodgers, 39, watched with other family members
from the public gallery as the case was opened.
Mr Barton said the woman spent the evening at four
nightclubs.
At the last, Lola Lo, she met a number of footballers out
celebrating and one bought her a drink.
"It would seem alcohol played a part in the events that night,"
said Mr Barton.
A friend of the woman did not consider her to be so drunk that
she was a danger to herself.
It is possible her drink might have been spiked but there was no
suggestion the accused had interfered with her drink, the
prosecutor added.
But this was not a case of a drunken young woman who did things
when drunk that she later regretted.
Mr Barton continued: "This is a case of a group of men taking
advantage of a woman who through a combination of drink and
tiredness, ended up unconscious.
"She was not in a condition to resist, give consent or prevent
things happening."
The woman now had a series of flashbacks. One was walking along
the seafront with Lewis Dunk, who had his arm round her.
She could remember waking up in a hotel room the next day in a
double bed with Anton Rodgers next to her.
Another player, Ben Sampayo, was asleep on a single bed in the
room, which had been booked for them by the club.
Mr Barton said Rodgers was wearing only his underwear and she
did not have her bra on.
"Her dress was pulled up, exposing her body. Her breasts were
exposed.
"Toilet paper was strewn around the room and there were remnants
of shaving foam."
The woman had tried to ring her sister but her mobile battery
was dead.
Stress: Father and son show the strain as they arrive at the Old
Bailey
Mr Barton said she asked to use Rodgers'. He was
reluctant at first but agreed after she was
persistent.
She could not remember her sister's number and scrolled through
photographs on the handset.
"She saw there was a whole series of photographs of a young
woman wearing a pink dress.
"The woman was lying on a bed, clearly not awake and, in some of
them, semi-naked men around her.
"She looked at some of the many photographs and then realised to
her horror that she recognised the unconscious woman in the pink
dress was in fact herself.
"She has no recollection of these photographs being taken."
It was the prosecution case that the men in the pictures were
the defendants.
Mr Barton said the woman woke Rodgers up and asked him to delete
the pictures.
"She wanted him to get rid of the photographs but he simply
laughed at her. He told her that these were nothing to do with
her," added the prosecutor.
"She pleaded with Rodgers to delete the photographs but he told
her: 'Sorry, we are going to a barbecue'.
"He locked himself in a bathroom and had a shower. She was told
by Sampayo to leave, which she did.
"The indifference shown towards her by Rodgers and the others
that morning is indicative of the group's overall attitude to her
and the events the night before."
Mr Barton said Sampayo had woken when the woman was allegedly
arguing with Rodgers and she asked him how he would feel if it was
him.
"He said that if there were a group of women with their genitals
exposed near his face he would be proud of that and would put any
photographs of it on Facebook."
The woman missed work that day but arrived the following day
wearing "scruffy clothes" and appeared as though she had not slept,
the court heard.
After she was questioned by her manager, she claimed she was
attacked in the street but said she did not know the names of the
men involved, fearing the repercussions of reporting the
footballers, Mr Barton said.
Young star: Anton Rodgers in action for former club Chelsea
She provided detailed descriptions of the men to police
in the hope the footballers would be identified as her attackers,
jurors were told.
The prosecution say the woman's initial refusal to identify the
defendants as her attackers proved she did not willingly take part
in any sexual acts in order to sell a "kiss and tell" story.
"She is not a young woman who is a wannabe 'wag' but rather she
was clearly mortified by what she subsequently found out had
happened to her as she lay unconscious on that bed", said Mr
Barton.
The jury heard that the woman saw two of the defendants -
Rodgers and Barker - some time after the incident, when Barker
allegedly said: "Do you remember having sex with me?"
The woman eventually went to police some six months after the
alleged offences when another Brighton footballer, who cannot be
named for legal reasons, revealed he had seen intimate photographs
and videos of her from the hotel.
He claimed they had been shared among his teammates and
threatened to post the photographs and videos online, the
prosecutor said.
The woman spoke to her employers before contacting police on
January 12, the court heard.
The woman told police she had seen a number of photographs of
sexual acts being performed on her, the court heard.
She recalled one of the photographs showed the initials 'GB'
sprayed on her thigh in shaving foam, with one of the defendants -
George Barker - stood next to her grinning, the court heard.
The defendants were arrested on January 19 and interviewed by
police.
Cook admitted that photographs had been taken of the woman with
some of the players' genitals showing, but claimed he was in the
background and did not take part.
In a prepared statement, Barker said only one photograph had
been taken of the woman, which featured his initials written in
shaving foam on her leg.
Dunk told police he woken up to see another player - Leon
Redwood - writing 'GB' on the woman's leg in shaving foam but
claimed he had not seen any photographs.
Rodgers refused to answer police questions, the court heard.
Another player - Ben Sampayo - was also interviewed by police
and admitted to seeing photographs of the woman unconscious after
he had been woken in the night by his teammates.
The jury was shown a photograph recovered by police from
Barker's mobile telephone, which featured the defendant standing
next to a woman, with the initials "GB" written in white foam on
her leg.
No other photographs of the alleged abuse were found by police,
the court heard.
Mr Barker told the jury the woman had provided a "clear and
compelling account" of what the four defendants did at a time when
she was "unconscious and so very vulnerable".
"Some of these defendants accept that something inappropriate
did happen, but point the finger at someone else, denying their own
involvement," he said.
"Sadly the truth is that they were in it together. They
deliberately humiliated her and they did so for their own sexual
gratification.
"If anyone during the trial were to suggest that it was a joke,
then you may think it was singularly unfunny and constitutes
conduct going far beyond that which would ever be considered
acceptable even in jest between friends.
"Here it was with a vulnerable unconscious young woman and as
such, the prosecution say, it constituted criminal sexual
misconduct."
The trial was adjourned until tomorrow.