Former England striker Andy Carroll has revealed in his autobiography that he was the victim of a sexual assault while playing for Newcastle United in 2021.
Carroll was in his second spell at Newcastle when he the assault took place in his home on the evening after a match. The unnamed perpetrator was charged and convicted, and was sentenced to three years in prison.
Disturbing details of the incident were revealed in Owning It, the 37-year-old’s new book, which has been published this week.
Andy Carroll’s assailant has since been jailed
Carroll’s account reveals that he awoke in his bed to find the male ‘celebrity mate’ of his now ex-partner committing the assault, subsequently throwing him out of the house and later knocking him unconscious when he tried to return.
“The attacker denied Carroll’s allegations, but was subsequently charged with sexual offences by the police,” reports The Athletic. “The striker testified in court, a process which he describes as ‘humiliating and embarrassing and absolutely horrendous’.
“At the trial’s conclusion, the man was found guilty of sexual offences and sentenced to three years in prison, placed on the National Sex Offender Register and banned from entering the village where Carroll lived.”
It wasn’t the first time Carroll has been the victim of a serious crime. In 2017, a convicted burglar was jailed for his part in the attempted drive-by robbery of Carroll’s luxury watch in Essex.
22-year-old Jack O’Brien was sentenced to six years behind bars after he was found guilty of the offence, which culminated in two motorbikes chasing Carroll’s car back to the training ground of West Ham United, where he was playing at the time.
The former Newcastle and Liverpool striker, who now plays for and co-owns non-league Dagenham & Redbridge, has had his own run-ins with the law throughout his career.
Carroll will face trial in January over unrelated allegations that he breached a non-molestation order, to which he pleaded not guilty earlier this year.
He started out at boyhood club Newcastle, where he scored 31 times in 80 league matches in the Premier League and Championship before a big-money move to Liverpool in 2011.
After a spell with West Ham, the striker returned to St James’ Park in 2019. He went on to play for Reading, West Bromwich Albion, Amiens and Bordeaux, before linking up with the Daggers last year.
Carroll played nine times for England between 2010 and 2012.