Jury split over Brighton footballers accused of sex assault

Three Brighton and Hove Albion footballers and a former team mate face a retrial on charges of sexual assaulting a 19-year-old woman.

Albion players George Barker, 21, Lewis Dunk, 21, and Anton Rodgers, 20, and their former team mate Steve Cook, 21, who has since joined Bournemouth, deny the charge.

Dunk, of Woodbourne Avenue, Brighton, was cleared of voyeurism.

Barker and Rodgers, both of Highview Avenue North, Brighton, and Cook, of Perth Road, St Leonard’s, were also charged with voyeurism.

They denied the charge but the Old Bailey jury was also unable to reach a verdict despite being told that a majority of 11-1 or 10-2 would be enough.

Jurors had been considering their verdict since Friday (1 February).

Richard Barton, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said that the players humiliated the woman, who is now 21, as she slept in their hotel room at the Jury’s Inn by Brighton Station.

He said that they assaulted her and took pictures on a mobile phone after celebrating their win in the Sussex Senior Cup final in July 2011.

The players said that the woman had lied and changed her story.

They said that she had climbed into bed with two of the players and tried to kiss them and that she took part in their “banter”.

If a retrial is ordered, it could take start on Monday 22 April.

The case was heard at the Central Criminal Court, better known as the Old Bailey.