Titus Bramble, the Premier League footballer, was cleared yesterday of sexually assaulting two women during a night out on Teesside.
Throughout the four-day trial, Mr Bramble, a defender at Sunderland football club, denied accusations of groping a woman in a nightclub in Yarm before sexually assaulting another woman in a taxi-ride home, and was found not guilty yesterday by a jury at Teesside Crown Court.
The court heard from Mr Bramble that the woman who accused him of the assault was “touchy-feely and flirty” and kissed him “passionately” before putting her hand on his crotch as they shared a taxi on September 28 last year, two days after his team had lost an away match to Norwich City.
He said: “We were kissing. We kissed a couple of times passionately. She was touching me and putting my hand on her leg.”
Abid Hussain, the driver of the taxi, said he had diverted to Stockton police station when he felt the woman “needed help” after she squeezed his arm. She accused Mr Bramble of putting his hand up her dress without consent and twice forcing her hand on to his groin, which made her “really scared”, she told the court.
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Mr Bramble, who lives in Wynward near Middlesbrough, was arrested on arrival at the police station, while the woman locked herself in the toilet. He was also on trial accused of grabbing a woman’s bottom in the Cross Keys nightclub in Yarm on the same night. The woman said she felt the grope and turned around to see Mr Bramble “smirking”.
The footballer denied all charges throughout the trial.
Mr Bramble, who has played for Ipswich, Newcastle United and Wigan Athletic during a mercurial career, described being recognised on a night out as “part of the job” and said he “enjoys” the female attention that comes with it.
He said: “Because of my job I get a lot of attention, both male and female. They ask for photos, ask for autographs, ask for hugs.
“You just get used to it.”
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Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, said to Mr Bramble: “In drink, you thought your fame would let you do what you wanted to do.”
Mr Bramble, who admitted he was “quite drunk” on the night after drinking six vodka and Diet Cokes, replied: “No, I didn’t.”
The footballer’s defence lawyer Ronnie Jaffa said that the woman made the allegation to “save face” after she regretted kissing him and suggested that the woman in the nightclub “did not actually see the groper”.
Summing up the case, Judge Peter Fox had told the jury: “There needs to be proof of the sexual touching of the girl in question [and] that [the] girl in question at the time did not agree to it.”
Sunderland football club said it would not be making a comment on the case.