CAPITAL BAN: Magpies Stars To Be Flown Back Home
By Matthew Jones
October 20 2003
The North East Premiership soccer stars who were interviewed as potential witnesses in connection with an alleged gang rape will be flown straight home following their next match in the capital.
The North East Premiership soccer stars who were interviewed as potential witnesses in connection with an alleged gang rape will be flown straight home following their next match in the capital.
Newcastle United's players will be jetted back to the North immediately after their game against Fulham on Tuesday night.
It is the first time the club have played in London since last month's encounter against Arsenal which took place on the weekend of the alleged sex attack.
Club insiders revealed that the squad will head straight back to the region after the Fulham clash.
A source said: "There's no way the players will be allowed to remain down there now.
"There's a home game against Southampton next Saturday so they'd probably have been brought back anyway.
"That will definitely happen now."
The players were questioned last week as possible witnesses by police from Scotland Yard's specialist sex crimes investigations unit based in Sapphire. They were being interviewed following the alleged attack on a 17-year-old girl at the Grosvenor House Hotel in central London. It is understood that five officers using Northumbria Police's HQ in Ponteland individually interviewed a number of Magpies' players regarding their movements in the capital over that weekend and wanted to know exactly who stayed in London after the Arsenal game on the Friday night and who travelled back to the North.
Kieron Dyer has already spoken out about his whereabouts on the night in question issuing a statement via his lawyers which said he wanted to "set the record straight and put an end to the massive speculation."