Sex assault football star faces deportation

A British student, who is an outstanding American footballer, is set to be deported from the US after a sex assault plea bargain kept him out of prison.

Aaron Percival, 20, a political science student at Columbia University in New York, was accused of sexually abusing a female student in her dorm.

But, in a Manhattan court yesterday, he admitted to the lesser offence of attempted aggravated sex abuse in exchange for 10 years' probation in a deal that opens the way for deportation.

London-born Percival must also register as a level-one sex offender – the least serious classification, said his lawyer, Brian Waller.

He said immigration officials have scheduled a hearing on deportation back to Britain.

Percival, from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has lived in the US since he was three and will be sentenced in Manhattan on March 16.

He was arrested in May and charged with two counts of sexual abuse in an alleged assault eight months earlier.

The criminal complaint said he entered the victim’s dormitory room at night, and the victim “awoke to find defendant licking her feet and toes without her consent”.

When she yelled for the slightly-built star cornerback to get out, he held her down and “sexually abused her … causing her pain and several injuries”, the complaint said.

The girl had left her door unlocked because her roommate had lost her key.

After the attack, the student went to a university medical clinic and told her roommate and friends about the incident. But she did not notify authorities until February because, police said, “she was scared to come forward”.

Prosecutor Martha Stolley said the victim has left Columbia because “she is getting a lot of ridicule” from classmates, particularly Percival’s friends.

Waller said his client decided to plead because he risked the “uncertainty of trial”, where he could have faced a minimum jail term of three and a half years if convicted.

Percival, who grew up in the United States but is a British citizen, is expected to be deported after the sentencing, according to his attorney Brian Waller.

Manhattan State Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Atlas said he had been told the victim consented to the plea deal, to avoid further pain.

Percival snuck into the student’s dorm room at 3.15am on September 13, 2003, knowing the door was unlocked because her roommate had lost her key.

The victim went to the health clinic the next day but didn’t report the incident immediately because Percival, a Columbia Lions football player, was popular on campus, authorities said.

Asked about the plea, Percival’s attorney said the stakes of a trial were too high. “It’s very difficult for a man like Aaron to face trial when you’re facing mandatory three and a half years in prison,” Waller said.