UPDATED: Steve Cook trial: woman breaks down in court (From Bournemouth Echo)
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UPDATED: Steve Cook trial: woman breaks down in court
1:10pm Thursday 24th January 2013 in News
The accused
A WOMAN alleged to have been sexually assaulted by four footballers - including AFC Bournemouth player Steve Cook - has broken down in court.
The offences are alleged to have happened in a Brighton hotel room when Cook was playing for Brighton and Hove Albion.
Click here to view live updates from the trial
Cook, 21, is accused alongside Brighton players Anton Rodgers, 19, Lewis Dunk, 21, and George Barker, 21, of sexual assault and voyeurism. All deny the charges.
The 21-year-old complainant became tearful after Sonia Woodley QC, defending Cook, questioned her about lies she told the police and suggested she was mistaken about Cook.
The woman, who was giving evidence behind a curtain at the Old Bailey, raised her voice and said: ''I knew something bad had happened. Do you understand how scared I was? I don't think you understand.
''After this, they were taunting me, calling my name out in the street. I didn't want to say who they were because I was scared. It's spiralled out of control.''
She added: ''I am sorry for wasting police time. I didn't want want to go to police, and then I had to make up these stupid stories.''
The woman agreed that Cook did not shout at her in the street.
The prosecution say he and three other Brighton and Hove Albion players sexually assaulted the woman while she was asleep in a hotel room in Brighton in July 2011.
In the morning, she said she saw a number of pictures on a mobile phone, but she could not remember what happened. Her employers called police after she failed to turn up for work but the woman told them ''a pack of lies'' saying she had been assaulted in the street.
Later, a friend of the woman, who had been clubbing with her earlier in the evening, said they had each drunk between 10 and 15 shots of alcohol and shared a bottle of wine. The woman, who was then 19, left with two men after kissing one of them, she said.
The woman, who was giving evidence behind a curtain at the Old Bailey, raised her voice and said: ''I knew something bad had happened.
''Do you understand how scared I was? I don't think you understand.
''After this, they were taunting me, calling my name out in the street.
''I didn't want to say who they were because I was scared. It's spiralled out of control.''
She added: ''I am sorry for wasting police time. I didn't want want to go to police, and then I had to make up these stupid stories.''
The woman agreed that Cook did not shout at her in the street.
The prosecution say he and three other Brighton and Hove Albion players sexually assaulted the woman while she was asleep in a hotel room in Brighton in July 2011.
In the morning, she said she saw a number of pictures on a mobile phone, but she could not remember what happened.
Her employers called police after she failed to turn up for work but the woman told them ''a pack of lies'' saying she had been assaulted in the street.
Brighton players Anton Rodgers, 19, Lewis Dunk, 21, and George Barker, 21, and former team-mate Steve Cook, 21, who now plays for Bournemouth, deny sexual assault and voyeurism.
Later, a friend of the woman who had been clubbing with her earlier in the evening, said they had each drunk between 10 and 15 shots of alcohol and shared a bottle of wine.
The woman, who was then 19, left with two men after kissing one of them, she said.
