Mother tells court of ‘nightmare call’

THE mother of a law student who said she was raped by a Republic of Ireland Under-21 international footballer told a court yesterday it was “like a mother’s worst nightmare” when her daughter phoned her in the middle of the night and told her to call the police.

The 22-year-old claims she was “almost passed out” and had “absolutely no energy to resist” when goalkeeper Graham Stack allegedly attacked her and his friend Allan Smillie allegedly sexually assaulted her in the player’s flat after meeting them in a West End club on September 1 last year.

“She said: ‘Mum, mum, call the police’,” her mother told the court.

“It’s like a mother’s worst nightmare to get a call like that.”

The middle-aged woman told the packed courtroom it was only the next morning that her daughter told her what she claims happened in Arsenal player Stack’s Beckenham home.

“She told me that she was very, very drunk and sick.

“She told me she had found the guy (Stack), who was with her friend, on top of her.

“She said that he stopped suddenly because he heard the friend’s voice and he got off.

She continued: “She said there was another guy at the address and he was disgusting but he didn’t rape her.”

Counsel for the defence claim the alleged victim, was “up for it” after a night out and instigated sex with Stack, whose girlfriend was in the next room.

Stack’s girlfriend was a friend of the alleged victim. Stack also had a fiancee, the court heard.

He was on loan to Millwall at the time of the alleged attack and is currently on loan to Reading.

Stack denies one count of rape and one count of sexual assault. Smillie denies two counts of sexual assault.

The jury later heard from the alleged victim’s best friend who she phoned on the night in question when she was in a cab on the way home.

“She didn’t actually say hello or anything,” the young woman said.

“She was crying and she seemed really upset, sobbing.”

“I could tell she wanted to say something but she couldn’t. She just said: ‘Guess’.

“I said: ‘Have you been raped?’

“She said: ‘Yes’.”