Footballer Andy Carroll says he was sexually assaulted by 'celebrity friend'

Andy Carroll has claimed that he was the victim of a sexual assault in 2021.

The former England striker released his autobiography, Owning It, today (24 September) as he accuses an unnamed ‘celebrity mate’ of his former partner.

“What happened to me affected every facet of my life,” the footballer wrote. Carroll opened up about the ‘traumatic’ incident as he explained it ‘affected every facet’ of his life.

The former Newcastle and Liverpool player, who still plays at National League South club Dagenham and Redbridge (which he co-owns), said the perpetrator denied the allegations and went on to get a three-year prison sentence.

Carroll testified in the court case and the 37-year-old described that experience in his autobiography as ‘humiliating and embarrassing and absolutely horrendous’.

He was playing for Newcastle at the time. (Carl Recine - Pool/Getty Images)

He explained he only decided to lay out this incident in his book at ‘the last minute’ after lengthy discussions with his publisher.

“I was sexually assaulted, there I said it. Scary to even think about and only a few people knew about it before now,” Carroll wrote.

He explained it was the evening after a Newcastle United match when this ‘celebrity mate’ invited himself round to watch the boxing.

Carroll said he had always felt ‘there’s something odd about him’ and alleged: “He was always asking me and my ex to go out with him and even buys me clothes. He is divorced with kids but I can't shift the feeling he likes me more than a platonic way.”

And he claimed that the unnamed star was ‘mixing drinks’ which left him feeling ‘lightheaded’ and thinking he had ‘slipped me something’.

With the guest staying in the spare room, Caroll headed to bed.

“I sleep naked and when I wake up this guy is under the duvet,” he wrote, alleging the man was attempting to perform oral sex under the bed sheets.

His new book is out today. (Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

The footballer demanded he left the house and ‘smack(ed) him as hard as I can’ when he tried to get back in, knocking him unconscious.

Carroll then called the police and was ‘sobbing’ into his kids’ nanny’s arms.

The alleged attacker denied the allegations and ‘the case dragged on for two years’.

He was found guilty of sexual offences and sentenced to three years in prison, placed on the Sex Offender Register and banned from enering the village where the footballer lived.

“The police called me to say he had been found guilty and I started uncontrollably crying,” Carroll wrote. “What happened to me affected every facet of my life.

“I’d think about it every day, making it difficult to focus on anything else, including football… The trauma of what happened to me hasn’t gone away.”