Arsenal footballer Stack cleared of rape

IRELAND and Arsenal footballer Graham Stack was cleared yesterday of raping and sexually assaulting a 22-year-old law student.

Mr Stack, 24, was accused of attacking the woman at his flat in Beckenham, south London, in the early hours of September 1 last year, after meeting her in a club.

A jury at Croydon Crown Court cleared the goalkeeper, who now lives at Ladygate Lane, Ruislip, north-west London, of one count of rape and one count of sexual assault.

Mr Stack’s friend and co-defendant Allan Smillie, also alleged to have taken part in the attack, was found not guilty of two counts of sexual assault.

The student met the two men at Trap nightclub on Wardour Street, in central London, for the first time that night through a friend - Mr Stack’s girlfriend.

During the evening she shared a kiss with operations analyst Mr Smillie, who has admitted he let her think he was a Millwall footballer like Mr Stack at the time.

The woman, who is from north London, claimed she later began to feel very unwell and was sick in the club’s toilets, where she had to be helped by an attendant, and during the taxi ride to Mr Stack’s home.

Her voice faltering, she earlier told the nine woman, three man jury that she had “absolutely no energy to resist in any way” when Mr Stack appeared in his spare bedroom naked and smiling and raped her.

She had claimed she “was almost passed out” and was saying “get off me, get off” but was ignored by the footballer and his friend, who was accused of touching her at the same time.

It was alleged that after raping the student, Mr Stack sexually assaulted her before she moved into another bedroom where Mr Smillie sexually assaulted her.

The jury did not accept this and both men were acquitted of the four counts against them.

When the jury foreman delivered the first verdict after approximately five hours of deliberations - that Mr Smillie was found not guilty of sexual assault - the packed public gallery erupted with shouts of “yes” and screams.

Judge Thomas Joseph said: “Stop that or you will be sent out. This is not a concert hall, it is a court of law.”

Mr Smillie’s legal representative said on behalf of his client: “He’s delighted that his innocence, which he has maintained from the very moment the allegation came out, has been established and that justice has been done.”