Soccer-Man bailed over UK soccer rape allegations ( 2003-10-09 09:38) (Agencies)
British police made their first arrest on Wednesday in connection with a
17-year-old girl's allegations she was gang-raped in a luxury London hotel by up
to eight top professional soccer players.
British media reported that the man, who has been bailed pending
further inquiries, was not a football player.
"A 29-year-old man attended a central London police station by
appointment where he was arrested in connection with an allegation of rape and
sexual assault made by a 17-year-old woman," a Scotland Yard police spokesman
said.
"He is now bailed to return on a date in late October," he added.
The teenager's allegation that she was raped by up to eight top soccer
players in the five-star Grosvenor House hotel on September 27 threatens English
football with one of its worst scandals ever.
Publicist Max Clifford, who is advising the girl and her family, said
on Wednesday she had tested negative for HIV after the alleged incident.
"She is hugely relieved. Her dad has phoned me in the last half hour to
tell me that, and obviously I told him about the arrest," Clifford told Reuters.
"They are hugely relieved that something seems to be happening," he added.
Nicholas Meikle, a 29-year-old party organiser who said he often
socialised with famous soccer players, told the News of the World newspaper at
the weekend he had been at the hotel on the night in question.
He said he and three other men had sex with the girl, but that there
was no rape.
"She didn't say 'no.' She didn't push anyone off," the newspaper quoted
Meikle as saying.
The scandal is one of several to have suddenly erupted around top class
English soccer and has raised questions about the behaviour of young men who are
paid enormous sums and worshipped like pop stars.
A player for Leeds United soccer club was released on bail on Wednesday
after being questioned by police in the northern English city in connection with
allegations of sexual assault by a 20-year-old woman.
A second man questioned by police in the same case was also released on
bail.
The day before, England and Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand
was barred from a key international tie against Turkey at the weekend for having
failed to appear for a mandatory drugs test.
