Footballers 'put teenager through rape hell'

Footballer Terrell Forbes and five other aspiring players subjected a 15-year-old girl to almost 24 hours of rape and sexual assault, a court heard today.

The 23-year-old who now plays for Grimsby Town, but represented Queens Park Rangers at the time, was one of at least six men who forced the teenager, now 16, to have sex against her will "many, many times" during the attack in London.

Kingston Crown Court was told Forbes, who now lives at the H & G guesthouse in Cleethorpes, near Grimsby, denies one count of rape in connection with the attack on March 4 and March 5 this year.

Prosecuting Nicholas Atkinson, QC, told the jury of seven women and five men: "You will hear from the victim that she was indecently assaulted, that she was raped many, many times during the course of almost a day in March this year."

He said that the girl had been befriended by one of the men some months earlier and that he approached her before the attack, inviting her to a flat.

"They met on March 4, he took her to a flat where she was to be abused and humiliated by the defendants," said Mr Atkinson.

"She was abused by many others who have not been identified and do not appear before you in this dock."

Mr Atkinson told the jury that DNA tests on items recovered from the flat confirmed that there were more than six men involved in the abuse.

"The defendants are professional footballers or on the fringes of that world and indulged themselves in an activity where a large number of men have sex with one woman," he told the court.

"They wanted to do that, but the girl of 15 who they selected did not."

Three London men also deny one count of rape; Shane Sutherland, 21, of Chesham Road, Anerley, Darren Wallace, 23, of Sevenoaks Road, Brockley, and Kevin George, 21, of Maroons Way, Catford.

Philip Mighton, 23, of Sandbourne Road, Brockley, denies three counts of rape and Ashley Campbell, 21, of Sandbourne Road, Brockley, denies two charges of rape.