Jury out in footballers' rape trial
A jury in Britain has begun deliberations in the trial of two footballers accused of raping a woman who was “too drunk to consent” to sex.
Sheffield United and Wales striker Ched Evans, 23, and Port Vale defender Clayton McDonald, also 23, deny the alleged attack on the 19-year-old at a North Wales hotel last May.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told police she has no memory of the incident and the prosecution said she was too drunk to consent to sexual intercourse.
The incident happened at a Premier Inn near Rhyl after the footballers had been on a night out in the seaside town on May 29.
The trial, which began on April 11, was told McDonald met the woman on the street after visiting a takeaway in the early hours of the next morning.
He took her back to the hotel where they had sex and were joined by Evans, who also had intercourse with the woman.
The jury was told that as the incident took place, Jack Higgins, an “associate” of the footballers, and Ryan Roberts, Evans’s brother, watched through a window.
Video recordings found on Mr Higgins’s phone showed he had been filming or trying to film the incident.
Evans, of Ashtree Gardens, Millhouse Green, Penistone, South Yorkshire, and McDonald, of Marys Gate, Crewe, Cheshire, admit having sex with the woman but deny rape and say she was “in control of her actions”.
The footballers met when they were 10 years old and shared digs while they attended the Manchester City youth academy.
