KIERON Dyer, the England and Newcastle United footballer, last night denied he was involved in the alleged gang-rape of a 17-year-old girl in a London hotel.
Dyer issued a statement through his lawyers after two other footballers were arrested yesterday by detectives investigating the girl's allegation that she was raped by Premiership players.
Scotland Yard said the men, aged 22 and 19, went to two London police stations by appointment, where they were arrested and remained in custody. The older man was later released on police bail.
A total of four men have been questioned about the allegations. A 27-year-old man arrested yesterday was bailed by police last night pending further inquiries.
On Wednesday, Nicholas Meikle, a party organiser, was arrested and bailed over the accusations after going voluntarily to a police station.
Dyer, 24, said his family had been hounded and ''my reputation has been damaged in the most public way possible''.
He said: ''I had no involvement in this matter let alone being 'at the centre of it' as suggested in e-mails, websites, and elsewhere.
''Until now I have felt trapped and it has been very frustrating that I have been unable to clarify publicly the facts which clearly exonerate me, whilst the police conduct their inquiries.''
The footballer, who is on international duty with the England squad in Turkey for a crucial Euro 2004 qualifier, said: ''I recognise that the claims made by the woman involved are of the most serious nature, and warrant a thorough investigation. That is without doubt.
''I do not wish to trivialise these serious allegations.
''It is for this reason that I have not stated my position until now.''
The teenager claims she willingly had sex with one man but was then gang-raped by a group of others, including several Premiership footballers, at the Grosvenor House Hotel on London's Park Lane on September 27.
Mr Meikle, 29, from Catford, south London, said on Wednesday night that he welcomed the police investigation.
In his statement, Dyer said that on the night of September 26, he went to the Grosvernor House Hotel and checked in with several other people.
He said the hotel entered the other people's rooms under his name.
At 11.30pm, he said he went to Sketch on Conduit Street in W1 and remained there until it closed at about 2.20am.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article