Arsenal footballer raped me, student tells court

A law student told a court today how she was raped by an Arsenal footballer after a night out at a West End club.

Her voice faltering, the 22-year-old claimed she had “absolutely no energy to resist in any way” when goalkeeper, Graham Stack, currently on loan to Reading, allegedly attacked her in his flat.

The woman was ill and trying to sleep when she was set upon by the player and sexually assaulted by his friend, Allan Smillie, in the early hours of September 1 last year, the jury heard.

“I saw Graham Stack in the doorway of the room completely naked” Croydon Crown Court was told.

“He was smiling…I was really confused.

“He got on top of me. I think I remember his trying to kiss around my neck and face area.

“He started to have sex with me. He raped me.”

From behind screens she told the packed courtroom: “It was really, really sudden. There was absolutely no warning whatsoever. It was completely out of the blue. I was aware of what was happening, I just felt completely unable to do anything.

“I was almost passed out but saying ’get off me, get off’ and ’I just want to sleep’. They just totally ignored me.”

She claimed Stack only stopped attacking her when her friend called out his name.

Stack, of Ladygate Lane, Ruislip, west London, who today wore a dark suit, white shirt and dark tie, denied one count of rape and one count of sexual assault at an earlier hearing.

Smillie, an operations manager from Boundaries Road, Feltham, west London, who today wore a black suit and shirt and black and silver striped tie, pleaded not guilty earlier to two counts of sexual assault.

The alleged victim met the 23-year-old men just hours before at Trap nightclub on Wardour Street, Central London, through a school friend and shared a kiss with Smillie, the court was told.

She drank half a glass of wine, two single and one double vodka and cranberries, and at the end of the evening felt unwell.

She was sick in the club toilets and also on the way to Stack’s home in Beckenham, south London.

She told the jury: “I was completely out of it, I felt really, really sick … I felt as if I was really, really drunk and I couldn’t understand why.”

She said she usually drinks a lot more than that at university and added: “I have never ever been that sick from alcohol, ever.”

When the woman arrived at the flat she claimed Smillie suggested she take her jeans off because she had sick on them. She agreed, and got into bed.

She said she felt ill and wanted to sleep but he got in bed with her and sexually assaulted her, the court heard.

Stack, who was on loan to Millwall at the time, then raped her before sexually assaulting her, it was alleged.

The woman, who is from north London and was 21 at the time of the alleged incident, moved from the spare bedroom to the main bedroom where Smillie sexually assaulted her again, it was claimed.

She said: “He was trying to undo my bra … I was saying to him ’get off, I want to go home’.

“He said: ’I can’t help it.’

“I was really scared at this point, I didn’t know where I was, what happened was sinking in.”

She then phoned her mother and took a taxi home.

The next day the woman told her school friend, who had been with her at Stack’s flat that night, what had happened but she did not believe her, the nine-woman, three-man jury was told.

She said: “She said: ’I’ve got Graham at my house. He categorically denies having sex with you or doing anything to you…this could ruin his career.”

Later that day Stack turned up at the woman’s house, it was said, and she reported the alleged incident to the police.

During his opening, prosecutor Robin Johnson said urine tests showed the alleged victim was one and a half times over the legal drink-drive limit but samples had not been properly preserved and were not that reliable.

He added: “There are such things as date rape drugs. Let me make it clear that samples were taken from her, all the tests proved to be negative.

“There’s no evidence that she was drugged on that occasion. There’s plenty of evidence that she was feeling extremely unwell at the end of the evening.

“The Crown’s case is that she was not consenting, she made that clear, and even if there was any doubt, by her sheer physical state and what they had seen in the club, and in the car, they would have appreciated that.”

During cross-examination, Edward Henry, on behalf of Smillie, claimed the alleged victim “exaggerated the effect of drink”.

“You weren’t incapacitated,” he said.

“I could barely verbalise,” she said.

The barrister added: “You know in your heart that no crime has been committed against you don’t you?”

She replied: “No.”

The hearing was adjourned until tomorrow.