Rape accused footballer Nile Ranger 'seen booking hotel room'

Former Newcastle striker Nile Ranger now plays for Swindon Town

Footballer Nile Ranger was seen booking a room at the hotel where, a night earlier, he is accused of raping a woman, a court has been told.

The 22-year-old former Newcastle United striker denies raping a woman he had been out with in Newcastle last January.

The woman said she saw Mr Ranger, who now plays for League One Swindon Town, when she went to see the hotel's CCTV.

Mr Ranger has claimed the woman consented to sex.

She told the court after swapping messages with the footballer, she met him in a bar and next remembered waking up naked in a hotel room the following morning.

During cross-examination by Toby Hedworth QC, defending, the woman, who gave evidence via a videolink, wept when he suggested she had sex twice with Ranger and was "enthusiastically participating".

'Horrible state'

She has claimed she was too intoxicated to consent and was not attracted to the footballer.

She told the jury she returned to the Carlton Hotel in Jesmond, the following night with a relative to see if they could check the CCTV on the premises.

The alleged victim told the court: "Nile Ranger was at the front desk. He was booking another room for that night, for the same thing to happen to someone else.

"I know this is not the first time this has happened. Since this case, two other people have mentioned being in a horrible state in the same sort of circumstances as what I have been in.

"I'm not going to let it happen to someone else."

Dance moves

Mr Hedworth responded: "You can say what you like about him. You can say he's done it to that person, this person, the other person in the hope that mud sticks."

The alleged victim replied: "That's not true. I know me, I know what happened that night."

Having seen CCTV images of herself looking intoxicated, she said: "Judging by those videos, I'm in no fit state to consent to anything."

Mr Hedworth asked about chatty text messages the pair swapped the morning after the alleged attack, including jokes about Ranger's dance moves, and she replied: "I don't know why I responded like that. I kick myself for responding like that.

"Unless you are in this situation, no-one has a right to say how I dealt with the situation."

The trial continues.