Albion players sex assault jury retires

Three Brighton and Hove Albion footballers and a former team mate are waiting to learn whether a jury will convict them of sexually assaulting a teenage girl.

Albion players George Barker, 21, Lewis Dunk, 21, and Anton Rodgers, 20, and Steve Cook, 21, who has since joined Bournemouth, deny sexual assault.

Barker and Rodgers, both of Highview Avenue North, Brighton, Dunk, of Woodbourne Avenue, Brighton, and Cook, of Perth Road, St Leonard’s, also deny voyeurism.

Richard Barton, prosecuting, said that they assaulted a drunk 19-year-old woman as she slept in their hotel room. She is now 21.

Mr Barton said that they exposed themselves and used shaving foam to spray Barker’s initials on her.

He said that the incident at the Jury’s Inn hotel by Brighton Station after the Sussex Senior Cup final in July 2011 was for their sexual gratification.

The players told the court that the woman was awake, had tried kissing two of them and took part in the banter in the room.

She admitted lying to police and her employer initially but said that she was telling the truth now.

The case is being tried at the Central Criminal Court in London, better known as the Old Bailey.