'Goalie and girl kissed passionately' rape trial told

The best friend of an Arsenal footballer accused of raping a law student after meeting her in a West End club told a court today he saw them kiss “passionately”, their bodies “entwined”.

Allan Smillie told Croydon Crown Court that just minutes after he and the alleged victim had been kissing and touching each other at goalkeeper Graham Stack’s flat on September 1 last year, she turned towards the player and they kissed.

“Graham lay down (on the bed) so X was in between us,” the 23-year-old operations analyst said.

“She turned her back towards me, she turned to face Graham. They started kissing.

“I believe it was a French kiss, it looked like a passionate kiss.

“She looked like she was rubbing the bottom of his back, the top of his arm.

“They looked like they were getting very intimate … they looked like they were entwined.”

Smillie said he felt “embarrassed” by what was happening.

He told the south London jury: “There were two people there that obviously wanted to be together and I was lying there thinking, ’What am I doing?’…I felt like a lemon.”

He said he went to help Stack’s girlfriend with her contact lens in another room but he noticed the duvet had been pulled over the footballer and the young woman and he “believed” that they were having sex or something similar to sex.

When asked by his counsel Edward Henry: “Did it occur to you in any way at all that your friend was forcing himself?”

Smillie replied: “Not at all.”

The barrister continued: “Were you lying on that bed stroking and caressing X while your friend was having sex with her?”

The defendant: “No, I definitely was not.”

Counsel for the defence claimed the 22-year-old woman was “up for it” after a night out at Trap on Wardour Street, central London, and after a “kiss and a cuddle” with Smillie, instigated consensual sex with Stack.

The alleged victim, who is from north London, claims she “was almost passed out” and was saying “get off me, get off” but was “totally ignored”.

Stack was on loan to Millwall at the time of the alleged incident and is currently on loan to Reading.

The 24-year-old footballer, of Ladygate Lane, Ruislip, north west London, denies one count of rape and one count of sexual assault.

Smillie, of Boundaries Road, Feltham, west London, denies two counts of sexual assault.

He earlier told the nine women – three man jury that it was “your worst nightmare” to be accused of sexual assault.

“It disgusts me every time I think about it,” he said.

“Criminals and people with no morals look upon such crimes with disgust.”

He added: “It’s just your worst nightmare. I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemy. To have someone say something so degrading, a defamation of yourself, that you know didn’t happen.”

He said he was attracted to the alleged victim after meeting her for the first time that night. He believed she fancied him because of her body language.

He described to the court what he claims happened at Stack’s Beckenham flat.

“We were lying (on the bed)…she turned to face me, I turned and faced her and we kissed, we French kissed.

“(She was) touching the bottom of my stomach, lifting my T shirt, my upper thigh, my crotch area.

“I touched her. I was responding to her actions towards me, we were kissing continually throughout. I touched the top of her breasts…

He continued: “All the time that was happening she was touching me back…it was clearly a mutual thing that two people would do in that situation. It was a carry on from the club of the attraction I presumed she had for me.”

Mr Henry asked: “Was there any indication given that what you were doing was unwanted or unwelcome?”

Smillie: “None at all.”

Smillie, who first met Stack when they played on opposing football teams when they were about 10 years old, said the alleged victim later went to the toilet and he thought she was trying to be sick but he didn’t hear any splashing sounds.

Robin Johnson, for the Crown, put it to the defendant: “The truth is that you and your friend saw that attractive girl in a terrible state didn’t you?”

Smillie: “No.”

Mr Johnson: “And you took advantage of her, seeing her as available sex, wasn’t that the truth?”

Smillie: “That’s not the truth, no.”

Mr Johnson: “She was clearly in a terrible state from the time you left the club until, indeed, the time she left that flat.”

Smillie: “No I disagree with that, no.”

The trial was adjourned until tomorrow.