Five Footballers Arrested For Defiling Woman In A Hotel (Photo)

Five professional footballers have been arrested on suspicion of defiling a woman in her early 20s at a spa hotel.

The Crewe Alexandra players were on a pre-season training camp in Cornwall when the alleged incident took place in the early hours of Saturday morning.

A sixth man, who is not a player at the club, has also been arrested.

They had won a friendly 2-1 the previous day and were celebrating at the Penventon Park Hotel in Redruth, where they had been staying for the past week.

It is not known if the alleged incident took place at the £125-a-night hotel or the neighbouring nightclub Twilight Zone.

Devon and Cornwall police confirmed they had received a complaint from a woman in her early 20s.

A spokesman said: ‘At 4.30am this morning Saturday 6th of July police in Redruth received a complaint of s*xual assault against a woman aged in her early 20s.

‘The incident is alleged to have occurred at a property in Redruth. As a result of enquiries made five men aged 25, 19, 18, and two aged 24 were later arrested in connection with the incident.

‘They are currently in custody at Camborne and Newquay and are awaiting interview.

‘Earlier this evening, a sixth man was arrested in Cheshire, aged 21 years. He will be taken back to Cornwall where he will be formally interviewed.’

A spokesman for the League One club confirmed the five men are all first team players.

He added: ‘We can confirm that five players have been arrested and they are helping with the police inquiries and the club is too.

‘Obviously we can’t comment too much as its a police investigation.

‘Once they have all the facts we can take it from there. They are all first team players.’

He said that three players were being questioned as the ‘main ones’ in connection with the alleged s*xual assault and two were being questioned as ‘witnesses’.

All six men were held in police custody over the weekend and were still being questioned today.
Crewe finished 13th in League One last season and are due to start the 2013-14 campaign at home to Rotherham on 3 August.