Footballer Ched Evans ‘raped girl who believes her drink was spiked and then snuck out via fire escape’
FOOTBALLER Ched Evans raped a drunk teenager after another player told him he “had a girl” in his hotel room, a court heard today.
The former Wales international arrived hand in hand with his fiancée Natasha Massey at the court to face a retrial after his original conviction of rape was overturned.
Evans, 27, got to the hotel 15 minutes after his friend had taken the 19-year-old woman back to the Premier Inn for sex.
Cardiff Crown Court heard he rung Evans to say: "I've got a girl."
The teen was "intoxiated" when Evans had sex with her in the room and remembers nothing about the alleged rape, the jury heard.
It was said Evans then snuck out via the fire escape.
Prosecutor Simon Medland QC said: "She was that intoxicated – for whatever reason – that she didn't really know what on earth was happening.
“The facts of this case show is that she was raped by this young footballer in that room not that she had consensual sex with him.
"It is not a proper description, we suggest, to say that he had sex with (the woman). It is more accurate to say to that he 'did' sex to her. Sex without consent is rape."
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The court heard his friend, Port Vale player Clayton McDonald, had earlier left from the front door of the hotel in Rhuddlan, North Wales.
But Mr Medland said: "Having finished in that room, Ched Evans, then left surreptitiously by the fire exit door, not going back through the reception of the hotel. He then went away.
"The first that (the woman) knew of this was the next morning when she awoke in that hotel room.
"She remembers practically nothing of the events of that night and can only piece together some fragments of it. She remains convinced that her drink must have been spiked by someone."
The court was told Evans had earlier been convicted of rape but his friend McDonald had been cleared.
Evans' conviction was later overturned and a retrial was ordered.
Mr Medland told the jury of six men and six women: "Many people, even if unconsciously, carry certain preconceptions in their mind about what 'rape' is or what a 'rapist' looks or behaves like or how a 'rape' victim should or should not behave.
"I am going to ask you to put aside any such preconceptions which you might have in your minds and to decide this case on the evidence.
"This is especially important, you may feel, in a case like this because many of you will know of this defendant. He was at the time - and remains now – a well-known footballer."
The court heard the rape happened in May 2011 when the woman was 19 and Evans was 22.
He said: "He was at the time a well-known footballer then playing for Sheffield United and previously for Manchester City and Norwich City."
The court heard the teen had gone out to the Zu nightclub in Rhyl, North Wales.
Mr Medland said: "She had certainly had several drinks but not really any more than she normally would, perhaps indeed fewer.
"Yet she was much more drunk than she would expect to have been. You will see footage from CCTV of her trying to walk.
"She is seen to be very unsteady on her feet. One explanation which she gives for this is a feeling that her drink may have been 'spiked'.
"Let me say now very clearly that there is no evidence at all that this defendant or indeed anyone else did actually spike (her) drink.
"What we do say is that she was very intoxicated that night without really being able to account for how she had come to be in that state.
"Both Clayton Macdonald and Ched Evans were young men out on the town. Ched Evan was quite a local celebrity. He was a handsome and fit professional footballer, and as such a wealthy young man."
The court heard Evans had paid £92 to book the room in the Premier Inn.
Mr Macdonald met the woman later in a kebab takeaway and took her off in the taxi.
Mr Medland said: "He was speaking on the phone to this defendant. He said: 'I've got a girl'.
"At least he said something like that, but the taxi driver can't quite bring to mind what it was – some sort of slang meaning 'girl'.
"You may wish to bear that in mind too. He did not use a name and (she) took no part of that conversation.
"Did she know that she'd been 'got' by that stage? Was she in a frame of mind to know? Why was Macdonald telling Ched Evans that anyway?
"Was he telling him that in the sense of meaning 'I have a girl coming back with me so don't disturb us and go elsewhere'? If Macdonald did mean Ched Evans to stay away from the Premier Inn that night it certainly didn't seem to work."
McDonald arrived at the hotel at 4am with the receptionist saying the woman seemed 'very drunk' and 'out of it'.
Mr Medland said: "Only about 15 minutes later, Ched Evans arrived. He was in a taxi with some other men.
"He asked for the key to Room 14. He said he had booked the room himself earlier the previous night 'for a person in a different name'.”
The court heard Macdonald came to reception 15 mintues later and then left in a taxi. Evans was seen on CCTV later leaving by the fire exit.
Mr Medland added: “There is good reason to conclude, we submit, that she didn't even know Ched Evans was having sex with her, whatever the state of her knowledge about Macdonald and what he was doing.
"She had to piece together some fairly fragmentary memories of events later the next morning after she'd woken up and found that she'd wet the bed in the hotel and long after this defendant had slipped away into the night through the fire escape door. "
Judge Mrs Justice Nicola Davies told jurors “this case has history”.
She ordered jurors to avoid "all social media" during the course of the trial.
The former Manchester City and Sheffield United striker denies one count of rape on May 30, 2011, at Rhyl, North Wales.
The woman, who cannot be named to protect her identity, is due to give evidence to the court in the morning from behind a curtain.
The trial continues.
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